I'm a Fool
by theoneandonly.whoops
Summary: SS. I’ve always had friends, my best friend being Summer Roberts. She knew every little detail of my lifestory, except for the fact that I’ve been hopelessly in love with her since the day we met. AUish. Please Read & Review! Now Complete.
1. Love and Parties

**AN - Ok, so this is my second actual fanfic, it's a little different from my other one. I've got most of it planned out, but suggestions are welcome. At the beginning of the first few chapters there will probably be someone - usually Seth or Summer - telling the story a bit. Their name is above the part that they're telling, if that makes sense. It's AU-ish, and there will be a tiny bit of R/M in it, but they're only there to help the S/S story, and sometimes there will need to be a R/M mini-storyline, so I hope that's not a problem, cause I know a lot of S/S fans don't like R/M, but they are needed in this story. This chapter is really an introduction chapter, and a lot of it is thoughts. So, hopefully, enjoy. :D**

**DISCLAIMER - I think we all know I don't own it.**

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**Seth**

Hi, my name's Seth Cohen. I'm just your average sixteen year-old guy, well, not really; I was, but not anymore. It all changed when Ryan Atwood moved in next door to me. The guy was perfect; in every sense of the word. He had instant-popularity, the girls were all over him, he was a straight A+ student, and he was a great friend. I wasn't really _popular _before Ryan came, I wasn't _unpopular _either, just not one of those guys that all the girls dream about. As soon as Ryan came, everything changed, people starting looking at me in the same way they looked at, say, Luke Ward, the water-polo players; like I was actually somebody. I've always had friends, my best friend being Summer Roberts. She knew every little detail of my life-story, except for the fact that I've been hopelessly in love with her since the day we met, which, mind you was when we were five. She was also my first kiss; when we were six, we were playing soccer or tag and she fell on her knee, so I kissed it better. Then she kissed my lips; it was the greatest day of my life. When we turned seven, our parents, jokingly, arranged our marriages. They secretly wanted us to end up together, I know, that's weird for parents to want their kids to end up with anyone, but my parents aren't normal. They're not too eccentric either, I mean, I can stand to have friends over, which is really all that matters, right?

You know those parties you see on TV? Like where all the kids are in a house and there's lots of alcohol and fun stuff like that. Well, I thought they were made up, but apparently, they're not. They actually exist, and when Ryan came, we started getting invited to these parties. Or not really _invited,_ more like Ryan was the one holding them, so as his best friend, I got to come.

No one knew about my "crush" on Summer, not even Ryan. I was afraid he would make fun of me for liking one girl for eleven years. Ryan was in love with Marissa Cooper, Summer's best girl-friend, Marissa was with Luke though. But every now and then I would see Ryan and Marissa sneak into a spare room or something at _those _parties.

———————

Summer picked up a tube of lip gloss and started to apply it onto her lips. She was getting ready for Ryan's latest "bash" as Seth so fittingly called it. He was coming to pick her up soon, and she couldn't wait for him to arrive. The sooner he arrived; the sooner they got to Ryan's party, and if she knew Ryan, his party was probably already in full swing.

Luke was going to be there, and Marissa was very disappointed with that. Normally, Luke would hang out with his stupid water-polo playing friends, so she could go off with Ryan as much as she liked. Hopefully he would try to sneak out with Holly or some other Newbsie-in-training. It was weird to _want _your boyfriend to cheat on you, but Marissa didn't even like Luke that much. It was just, when your dating the most popular guy in school, you're not about to give that all up for some dude that appears out of no-where from some mysterious school, and starts throwing these amazing parties.

Summer finished getting ready for the party, and Seth was ten minutes late – and counting. Ugh, he was always late! Damn his cute dimples and hilarious comments, if it weren't for those, she would be mad at him for life. He could be the biggest jerk, and then he would say something that would have everyone in a 3-metre radius giggling, and Summer would have forgotten the reason she was mad at him. She had been "in love" with Seth from ages 8-11, but then they hit middle school, and everything changed. Everyone was no longer friends with everyone, and there were several new kids, such as Holly, who was the alpha-dog of them all. If Holly said it, it was true, no one questioned it. Except of course, for Seth. That alone had gotten him ridiculed from the "popular" group. Sure, he made his way back up, but he never quite hit Luke or Summer or Marissa's status. For a while there he was down there with the little mousy-haired kid that couldn't say anything more than the answer to a math problem. The problem was, that little-mousy haired kid also worked his way up, he was now the resident #1 fan to the water-polo team and they all had a soft-spot for the guy that would come to every game with all of his buddies and spend the whole time alternating through each member's name in cheer. This left Seth one level _below _the "#1 fan" whose name – or nickname – was simply "The Fan." His real name was Phillip, but no one called him that, except for Seth, who still remembered their comic-book-club days together.

Summer's train of thought was interrupted by that curly-haired cutie she called her best friend. "Hey" she whispered.

"What're you thinking 'bout?" Seth asked, knowing immediately that something was on her mind.

"Oh…umm…just the fact that you were late picking me up for the seventeenth time," she glared at him, "Yes, I've counted, and yes, you need to do something that will make me forgive you,"

"Uhh, well I heard that Ryan has erm- the whole team coming tonight, and uhmmm I'm coming with you – for the seventeenth time, but it's actually the sixteenth, see I counted too, and your math is very obviously –" he looked up at her, she was now glaring at him even more, "Brilliant, see…I'm the stupid one here! It's seventeen,"

This was worse than his usual comeback, but since she really wanted to get to that party, she would let it slide, "Alright-y then, so let's go," she smiled.

— — — — —

By the time Seth and Summer arrived, the party was indeed in full swing. Ryan came from the middle of the dance floor in his usual straight-out-of-a-catalogue attire. Summer quickly ran off to greet Marissa and Holly.

"Dude, what took you so long?" Ryan asked, casually.

"There was a little bit of a hold up with my hair-gel. I ran out, so I had to run to the drug-store."

"Ha ha. No seriously, what took you so long?"

"I'm serious." Seth grumbled.

"Ohhhh, well then. Let me introduce you to my friends, Todd and Max, it's their first one of _my _parties" Ryan said, not truly surprised of Seth's mishap with the hair-gel, as a matter of fact, he had a little problem of his own with his hair-gel before the party; but he wasn't about to tell everyone about it.

"Hey." Todd and Max said in unison.

"Did you see the Harley in the driveway? That's Todd's" Ryan grinned, as did Todd.

— — — — —

Four dancing filled hours later, Seth felt like it was time to be getting himself and Summer home. He was responsible for the two of them, well, not technically, but he felt like it. He searched the entire dancing-area; no sign of Summer. He searched the backyard; no sign of her there either, all that was going on there was a few members of the team and "The Fan" talking about some random-probably-idiotic-topic.

After several more minutes of meandering his way through the dance floor, Seth reached the kitchen, where much to his dismay, Summer was. He wouldn't normally be upset to see her, but when she was one half of those random-make-out sessions, he couldn't help but feel his heart...ache a little bit. More like a lot though.

Summer was having a great time kissing Tom, or was it Todd? She was pretty sure it was Todd, but she had met him less than an hour ago, so she couldn't be too sure. Her "great time" was interrupted by Seth. She hated it when he caught her with another guy, it made her feel so bad. She didn't know about his crush on her, but it made her feel bad because this was the main reason she never had a steady boyfriend. He always had the same look on his face whenever he saw him with someone else. It was a mixture of pained and disappointed. Of course, she couldn't stand to look at him for too long when he looked at her this way, so she never made the connection between his pained expression and possible feelings for her. As she managed to pull herself away from Todd or Tom or Tim, she gave her usual response, which she knew would be met with "I'm not mad" from Seth.

She got up and mumbled "Geez, Cohen, I just wanted to make-out with someone."

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**Ok, I know that was kind of short, but they will get longer, I promise.**

**Please review,**

**-Sarah**


	2. Accept it! I Can't!

**AN- Thanks for the response everyone. This one's a little longer. The italic verse stuff is part of a song: "Other Side of the World" by KT Tunstall.**

**DISCLAIMER- FOX owns it. still? well, probably.**

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Summer**

Seth and Summer. Summer and Seth. Sethummer. It had such a good ring to it; in sixth grade. I've found one of my journals and it's surprising how many pages I filled with our names. I sort of…miss those days. Everything's so complicated now. In elementary school you could like as many guys as you want – and no scandal. Now, you let one person know anything, and it would be all over the school the next day. That's why I only let one person know anything – Seth. Seth is the only one I truly trust. I mean, I trust Marissa with guy problems and stuff like that, but when it comes to serious problems – like when my mom left, Seth is the first one I go to. I usually end up telling Marissa in the end, but only once I've got it figured out first with Seth.

Let me tell you a little more about my history with Seth. Well, I used to like him – a lot, but then, well, middle school happened. Luckily though, even after 'middle school happened' – in grade 7, he asked me out, to a movie; Lord of the Rings 3, I think. It didn't go so well though. There was a party the night before and I heard that he was kissing one of my friends, Sam (Samantha). So, I ditched him. We didn't speak for two weeks after that, but then somewhere along the line we realized we needed our friendship more than anything, so we became friends again. Of course, it was awkward at first, but we got over it soon enough.

Honestly, we've been drifting apart lately, the school year just started and we have completely different schedules. The only time I see him really is at Ryan's parties, and I can tell he doesn't enjoy those too much. It's always awkward for some strange reason when he comes and finds me with a different guy each week. But, it's me and Seth; we get over awkwardness pretty fast.

I've been missing the good old days lately. Like when we were little. I miss playing tag with the entire class at lunch time. I miss being the only girl that didn't think boys had cooties. I miss eating the same sandwich for lunch everyday. I miss the late night conversations Seth and I would have under the moonlight.

Ugh, I can't believe I'm thinking so much about this! It's so 1990s. I think it's because I turned sixteen last week. Then I'm going to be seventeen, then eighteen, then in college. It's scary thinking about not having my dad or Seth there all the time.

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"Hey." Seth said, picking her up for yet another party.

"Hey," Summer got up, "You ready?"

"Uh, yeah…but I was thinking…" he trailed off, looking down.

"What?"

"Maybe we could skip the party tonight, I mean, we go to one, like, every week. So we could go biking or take a walk or something, like we used to."

"Uhh…" it sounded great, but why did he want to do this all of a sudden?

"We haven't been seeing each other as much lately, I kinda miss you," he grinned sadly, still looking at his shoes.

"Sure." She said quickly, how could she say no to him when he was being this adorable?

"Great. So we should go buy some food, do you want to go to the beach? Or maybe a long walk along the boardwalk? Thai? Italian? It's your choice of food, and the place," he rambled, getting back to normal.

"Slow down there." She laughed, "Thai and the beach sounds good to me,"

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"Soo…anything new happen lately, I know we haven't talked as much," Summer was laying next to Seth on a blanket staring up at the sky.

"Well, I got asked out a record number of times this week," he grinned.

Ugh, _this_ topic. "Oh really, how many?"

"Five."

"Woah, soo, who was it?"

"Sam, Jenny, Hailey, Alexa and Emily."

"Sam? Wasn't she like your first kiss?"

How could she forget? _She _was his first kiss. "No, you were."

"When was this?"

"We were six, remember?"

"No, I don't, actually."

"Let me paint a picture for you: we were playing soccer with the other kids and you fell, scraped your knee or something. Then me, being a good friend and all, kissed it better. Then you, seeing how awesome I am, kissed me."

"You are not awesome, not then not now, and I kinda remember that." Summer smirked.

"Ahh! Burn a hole in my heart why don't you?!"

"Aww, you may be awesome but I'm like a thousands times more awesome than you."

"Fine. But how could you forget that you were my first kiss?"

"Well, I didn't think little pecks counted, wasn't Sam your first kiss at that party in seventh grade?" she asked quietly; here it was. Another off-limits topic.

"I've never kissed Sam in my life. And I didn't have my first make-out kiss till grade eight." He sighed.

"Oh," was all she could manage. Had she made a mistake all those years ago? Come to think of it, it was _Sam _who told her that Seth had been with _Sam_.

"Hey. It's ok. So, anything new happen with _you _this week?" Seth asked, desperate to get off this subject.

"Well, I'm going out with Jake again tomorrow, so that should be fun. Did you say yes to any of those girls?"

"Jake's okay, I guess, I don't really know him." He laughed, trying to cover the hurt in his voice, "Yeah, I said yes to Sam, actually,"

"Oh."

"Yep."

Awkward!

Summer broke the silence, "I brought one of your favourite magazines—Quizfest. I know you love it," she smirked, "And there's a quiz in here, 'how much do you have in common with your best friend'"

"Hey! I only read it when I'm at your house because it's more interesting than People."

"Sure…" she laughed sarcastically.

"Ok, we can take the quiz, but wouldn't it be better suited for you and _Marissa_?"

"Nope." She smirked, handing him a section of the quiz, "fill out what it asks, your opinion not mine," she demanded.

"Ok." He looked down at the piece of paper, first question,

"Hobbies: Slumber parties or big house parties?' slumber party.

'Movies – classics: Legally Blonde or Bring it On?' Bring it On.

And they went on like this until he got to the fill in the answers part at the end.

"Favourite movie of all time: Yakuza."

"Least favourite movie of all time:" Lord of the Rings 3. It was a good movie and all but there were too many bad memories around it to enjoy it.

"Best friend – girl: Summer Roberts"

"Best friend – guy: Ryan Atwood"

"Latest crush: " Summer? No. he couldn't write that. He jotted down "Samantha Aarons."

He turned to Summer to see if she had finished answering all the questions; she had. "So what now?" he asked.

"Give me your quiz." She demanded, grabbing the piece of paper from his hands. She spent about two minutes comparing the two tests before explaining the results, "We had the same for everything except for favourite movie, Yakuza?! Please! And 'latest crush' obviously and my best friend is also Marissa, and yours is Ryan. I can't believe you wrote the same thing as me for least favourite movie, I would've thought you would put, like, Just My Luck or something like that."

"Well, I've never really liked Lord of the Rings; the first two were okay, but the third one……….. was not." He finished feebly.

"Yeah. I don't like any of them either." She mumbled, realizing that it was the movie they were supposed to see on their date, back in seventh grade.

"So…you wanna double tomorrow? You and Jake, and me and Sam."

"Sure." Summer mumbled.

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Summer was doubled over in laughter because of a memory of her and Seth. It was their double date. Dinner—at the diner. They somehow had ended up beside each other, with their dates slumped over, obviously bored—to everyone but Seth and Summer.

"And…Cohen, remember…that time for Halloween…we were Beauty and the Beast…" Summer said between laughs.

"Yeah…but I got tired of the beast mask so we…switched halfway though," Seth also tried to speak but the giggles weren't stopping.

Jake stood up, "Uh, I think it's time I should be getting home"

Summer managed to get a hold on herself and stood up as well, "What? Why? It's still early."

Sam spoke up too, "I think I should be going too."

"No. Cohen, I'm gonna go walk with Jake and you stay here with Sam." Summer grabbed Jake's hand, "Come on, let's go. Bye guys!" she put on a fake smile.

"Ok…" Jake said, being dragged away by Summer, "Bye!"

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Jake was walking beside Summer, trying to make conversation. Once they left the diner she didn't say anything else. "So, sorry if I'm being too nosey or anything, but it really looks like you have a thing for Seth; I could see it on your face."

"What?! I don't like Seth! He's just my best friend; nothing more, okay?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't really believe that."

"Why not? We've known each other forever so we're bound to have lots of memories together."

"It's not about the memories. I saw how you looked at him."

"How?"

"Like any second you were gonna say, 'sorry guys, this has just been a joke, me and Cohen are the real couple here.'"

"No. I don't like him like that; never have, never will," Lie.

"You know denial is a very normal way to cope. You're afraid that if you even acknowledge it to yourself you could lose his friendship and you don't want that to happen."

"You sound like a psychologist. And none of that's true." She said gruffly.

"Look, Summer, I like you. But I'm not even going to give this a shot because I know you have feelings for him," he said, Summer was about to say something but Jake just continued on, "You can deny it as long as you want, and then when you're older you'll be with some guy who you're _pretending _to love. Even you know it's true. I'm not saying you have to do anything right away, but if you don't do something soon, you are going to lose him; his friendship and everything."

"I'll never lose Cohen's friendship. Ever. He told me that himself when we were seven. And look at us now, like, nine years later and still best friends. We've been through a lot, and we'll go through a lot, but _nothing _will end our friendship. Okay?"

"Okay. I'll take your word on it. But for now at least, you and me; it's not going to happen. And if you want my advice, go ask him out. You said it yourself, nothing's going to wreck your friendship, so what do you have to lose?"

"What's the point of asking him out if I don't like him like that?"

Jake turned to face her, putting a hand on each shoulder, "You do like him, stop denying it - " he was cut off by Summer's lips against his. He tried to pull away, "what're you-" she wouldn't let him speak. If this wasn't going to prove that she didn't like Seth, nothing would.

She pulled away, "I… Like...You. Got it? Not Seth Cohen. You. Ok?" It was a lie; they both knew it. Maybe Jake knew it more than Summer, but he was too dumfounded by the fact that _Summer Roberts_ had just kissed him to say anything in protest.

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"Sorry about that." Seth sighed, turning to Sam.

"It's okay. But do you mind me asking, I mean, it's obvious, you and Summer?"

"Nope. She doesn't like me like that." He sighed again.

"But do you like her?"

_On comes the panic light  
Holding on with fingers and feelings alike  
But the time has come  
to move along _

"I used to, not anymore."

"Okay…"

"Can we just start this date over?" Seth asked.

"Sure. So…tell me something I don't know about you." Sam smiled.

"Well, I like comic books."

"Wow. That's pretty cool."

"Really?" Seth asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, my brother used to read them, so occasionally I would read one of the Lois and Clark comics."

"Oh. You like the love stories?"

"Yeah, they may be comic book characters, but they still have good romance."

Seth nodded, "Right…...so what bands do you like?"

"I'm into, like, Mariah Carey and Rhianna right now." Sam spoke jauntily.

"Oh. Cool."

"Yeah, do you like either of them?"

"I don't really know them. Well, Summer listens to them sometimes, but I always make her put on headphones 'cause I'm more into Indie and stuff like that."

"Oh. That's cool." Sam smiled weakly.

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A week or so later, Seth was sitting with Sam on a couch at one of Ryan's parties. Summer watched in disgust as Sam hit Seth playfully on the arm. _"She hit him! That's my move!" _she thought. Sam was so ew! Seth could do so much better than her. Now all Seth and Summer talked about was _Summer and Jake _or _Seth and Sam. _Ugh, 'Seth and Sam' had no style to it whatsoever. It didn't roll of the tongue in the same way _Seth and Summer _did. Ew! Was she actually thinking about this?! It's disgusting. She moved from her current spot to go find Jake, to like, make-out with him or something. Now that she had Jake and Seth had Sam, it was no longer Seth's 'responsibility' to bring Summer to the party and back. Jake took her. So, they barely ever saw each other anymore.

It sucked. Simple as that. And Summer hated it. Almost as much as Seth did, but of course she thought everything was just fine-and-dandy in Cohen-land.

She found Jake. He was watching as some water polo players and "The Fan" tried to see who could eat the most marshmallows in five minutes. Summer slipped an arm around Jake's waist, letting him know she was there.

"Oh hey!" he yelled over the music.

"Hi!!" she yelled back, "You wanna go outside or something?"

"Sure!"

They walked out to the porch where it was still crowded, but there was less noise. She pulled him out to the sidewalk, over to a nearby bench. She plopped down on it, not even trying to hide the frustrated expression that had taken over her face.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked.

"Nothing," she spat.

"It doesn't sound like nothing. Is it Cohen?"

"Don't call him Cohen, and NO it is NOT COHEN, why would it be Cohen? I don't know what you're talking about, I thought we got over this last Sunday. Why are you bringing it up again? Not everything's about him, you know!" she argued.

"Okay…" he turned so they were face-to-face, "Something's obviously up, and it is about Seth."

"No it is not!" she almost screamed at him, "Let's just make-out!"

"No! That's how you got out of this last time and I'm not letting you do that again. Look, I'm not going to say it again but you know what I want to say and you know that it's true. Right now, you have one of two options: 1) let him go; try to get over him; move on. Or 2) go tell him how you feel."

"Neither of those options apply to me, so sorry!"

"Summer! Why won't you just accept it?! Somewhere along the line you let yourself fall for him, and now you won't let it go. So choose. Him or me."

"That doesn't make any sense. He's my _friend_; you're my _boyfriend._ There's a difference. So, why do I have to choose?"

"My parents study psychology, so I know a lot about this. Yes, there is a difference between a friend and a boyfriend. But not in this situation, not when the girl is completely into the friend."

"I am not." Summer persisted.

"Stop it! You are! And I'm not doing this, I'm stopping this before it turns into anything serious. We're done."

"Jake…please, why won't _you _listen to _me_? I'm not into him."

_On comes the panic light  
Holding on with fingers and feelings alike  
But the time has come  
to move along _

"Sometimes, Summer, actions speak louder than words. Goodbye" Jake said, before turning and leaving Summer with a lot to think about.

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**AN - so who else is so upset about the ending two nights ago. It was such an amazing episode; one of the best this season. The end was just perfect (the ending montage with Ryan and their lives). r.i.p. OC. So anyways, please review,**

**-Sarah**


	3. Family Movie Night

**A/N - Thanks for the reviews everyone. They all made me smile :D. I have _another _post for you guys. This one didn't really turn out how I'd planned, when I started writing it all went different, but I still kept it...**

**DISCLAIMER - Nothing is mine.**

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Seth **

So, I've been going out with Sam for two weeks now; that's the third longest relationship I've ever been in! First being this girl, named Amy, for two months in eighth grade, it was a completely normal grade eight relationship—as in we didn't kiss for over a month! Second was this girl named Victoria, for a month in grade nine—it was okay, but it got old; fast. Both times the girl dumped _me._

Have I mentioned how annoying Sam is? She's horrible! She pretends to laugh at stuff I say when she doesn't even get it. When Summer doesn't get something, she'll just insult me, and that's much more attractive (weird, but true) than having someone fake it all.

Summer came over a week ago; in tears. She told me that her and Jake broke up, which—in any normal situation would be a bad thing—but I was actually kind of glad. It's horrible, I know, but I can't stand to see her with other guys. When I asked her why they broke up, she took, like, ten minutes to answer, going from—it just wasn't working to we don't like each other that much. Summer actually _rambled _in a very me way; I was very proud, secretly. She slept over that night, because she said she was too exhausted by everything to do anything. We couldn't share a bed like we used to, where I would sleep normally and she would sleep so her head was at my feet. Instead, I slept on the foam mattress that resides under my bed on the floor. My back is killing me!

Naturally, when Sam came and picked me up in the morning and found us, she was a _little _mad, but I've gotten her to believe that Summer and I are just friends.

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The sounds of Rihanna's "SOS" blasted into Summer's ears. She turned it on full blast so that she wouldn't be able to hear her own thoughts. But, it wasn't really working. It seemed that every song by any 'popular' artist started with the words "I've never felt this way before" or "I can't be without you" or worst of all "I've got you on my mind." Because she definitely had Seth on her mind, lately it seemed like he was on her mind 24-7.

Was it that weird to have dreams about the two of you having some romantic date followed with an _intense _make-out session? Or when you're sleeping at his house and you wish that he would just join you on the bed and wrap his arms around you?

Yes. Especially when this person was your _best friend_,who currently has a girlfriend that, yes, is not you. These dreams are fine, when they're about your boyfriend or your crush-of-the-week, but not when they're about Seth Cohen.

Even with all these dreams, Summer still believed that it was just someone that _looked _like Seth, or that she wasn't actually kissing _Seth_, it was simply a memory she was replaying in her mind.

Over and over.

And they weren't six, they were sixteen.

So, maybe it wasn't a replaying of some memory.

Just someone that _looks _like Seth Cohen. Not actually Seth Cohen.

Or that was Summer's logic at least. And it made perfect sense. If she never thought about it again. Ever. And she would never need to, because her and Seth; they were just friends. They always would be.

And she was fine with that. She wasn't going to listen to some stupid-sixteen-year-old-son-of-a-psychologist about having feelings for Seth.

Because that was definitely not true.

Right?

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Ryan glanced around the room, searching for any sign of Luke Ward. His field of view was interrupted by a giggling Sam attached to Seth's arm.

"Hey!" Seth screamed over the music.

"Hey!" Ryan yelled, "Seen Marissa? Or Luke?"

"Yeah, they went out tonight—I think."

"Come on!" Sam giggled, trying to pull Seth towards the dance floor.

"Went out?" Ryan ignored Sam, as did Seth.

"Yeah, his grandma's birthday or something…" Seth smirked.

"That's…" Ryan started, still looking around the room, when his eyes landed on Marissa, he spoke, "Not true…look" he gestured towards Marissa and now, Luke, who was beside her.

"Oh. I guess they came after all…" Seth shrugged.

"I guess. They're coming over here." Ryan said as Marissa and Luke, arm in arm, walked up to Seth, Sam and Ryan.

"Hey man!" Luke smiled at Ryan.

"Hey." Ryan put a very believable-fake-smile on.

"How do you always put these things together?" Luke asked stupidly, referring to the parties.

Ryan shrugged, "I have my ways."

"Ohhh, I get it!" Luke winked.

"What?" Ryan looked at Luke, bewildered.

"Nothing. C'mon Marissa." Luke lead Marissa to the centre of the dance floor.

"See, they get to dance." Sam pleaded.

"Maybe I don't want to dance." Seth stated.

"Fine" she looked at him with pleading eyes, "But _I _want to."

"I don't feel like it." He groaned.

"Well, what do you wanna do instead?"

"Uhhh…"

"How about this?" she leaned in and kissed him roughly. It wasn't nice; in Seth's opinion, it was slobbery and gross.

It hurt to see Seth kissing Sam. Summer didn't know why it was bothering her; or why she had to turn around so she wouldn't witness any of it. She had seen him with other girls before, but it was pretty much always at a party; playing spin-the-bottle and stuff like that. Therefore, it didn't mean anything, so no hurting.

But when he was with his _girlfriend_…that hurt. Because it always seemed so wrong for him to be with anyone. Let alone the little skank that stopped Seth and Summer from having their date way back when. That hurt _much _more.

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"You coming tonight?" Seth asked Summer, while laying on her bed, playing with Princess Sparkles.

"Yeah, I have to" she groaned, "Are you?" her happiness level went up by about 30 notches when the thought of spending a whole night with Seth entered her mind. She had to stop herself from thinking this kind of thing. Ugh.

"Yep," he answered. They were having a 'family' movie night. Of course, 'family' meant Seth's family, Summer's family, Seth's guest-of-choice-that-was-actually-chosen-by-Kirsten-and-Sandy (Sam), and Summer's guest of choice (Not yet chosen). So, it wasn't really just a nice _quiet _evening.

"What're we watching?"

"Do you even need to ask?" he laughed, "It'll be some Hollywood-thriller with Bruce Willis in it; no doubt."

"Those are so scary! I scream in, like, every scene. Oh my god, are we gonna watch 'Hostage' again?" she looked at him with a panicked expression.

"Yep," he grinned, "Don't worry, I'll sit beside you and protect you,"

"And how will Sam feel about that?"

"I dunno…she'll be on one side and you'll be on the other. It's simple."

"But she already walked in on me in _your _bed and you all crumpled up on the floor."

"So what? We're friends; friends sleep over at friends houses all the time. She's not worried about it."

"Oh." Damn it! Her plan wasn't working, "Who am I supposed to bring?"

"I dunno…it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Yes. It's very important!"

"Jeez…uhhh…how about Phillip?" Seth sniggered.

"Ew!" Summer laughed.

"Todd? You seemed to be enjoying his company a couple weeks ago."

"Who?"

"Make out partner, just before I started going out with Sam."

"Oh. I thought his name was Tom. How do you know him?"

"He's Ryan's friend. He has a _Harley_."

"Whoa. It's okay, I'll just go by myself." She said sadly.

"Aw, Sum, what's the matter? Still not over Jake?" he sat up, putting an arm around her.

"Jake? Oh. He's so last week" She leaned back into his chest. He felt so nice.

"Okay, then what is it?" this was his favourite way to sit with her; with the two of them as close as possible and his arm around her.

"Nothing. You should go get Sam." Summer managed to stand up and pretend to look through her clothes, as if she wanted to find something new to wear, "Go."

"Wait. I want to ask you some advice about Sam." Seth looked at her seriously. She nodded. He continued, "Well, she seems like she fakes everything. Like I'll bring up Death Cab, and she'll be like 'Oh I love them!' so I'll ask her what songs she likes and stuff, and she'll say these names that aren't even songs. And I'll say something funny and she'll laugh and say one of those generic expressions like 'You are so funny!' It's annoying and it's really bugging me."

"Well, is shefunny? Or just annoying?"

"No. She tries way too hard to be funny, and she can be annoying. But I don't know what I want."

"Well, you could always break up with her; it'll be easier now than later."

"I can't break up with her! I'm too afraid I'll hurt her feelings."

All Summer was thinking was _'Aw, Cohen, that's so sweet!'_ "So, you want her to break up with you."

"Yeah. But she won't; 'cause I'm too charming."

"Not really; you're not _that _charming. How about just being really horrible to her?"

"Are you kidding? That's even meaner than breaking up with her." Seth exclaimed.

Summer shrugged. "It leaves her with some dignity, if she dumps you, she'll feel better about herself."

"That's really weird…" Seth looked at her, bewildered.

"But true" Summer added.

"It won't work."

"Yeah, it will!" she protested, "Listen, all you have to do is pretend you're going out to a fancy restaurant and then show up in jeans and a t-shirt and say that you didn't feel like fancy food, so take her to the diner in her dress. She'll be so embarrassed"

"That's horrible! Where did you learn all that?"

"Marissa," Summer laughed.

"I can't do it."

"Okay, I have another plan…but you're not going like it. It may be even worse than the other one."

"Oh no." Seth groaned.

"But…we should wait till after tonight. Give her one last night with you."

"What's the plan?!" he screamed.

"Hold on there, well, first…"

—————————

Seth and Summer had discussed the plan. She had been right, it was much worse than the other one, but since it involved an item on Seth's "To do before I die" list, he decided, just for that it was worth it.

—————————

Sam had her hand on Seth's thigh as they ate dinner; chicken parmesan all around.

Sandy spoke first, "So, this is nice. We don't do this often enough."

"Yeah, it should be weekly," Dr. Roberts agreed.

"We'd run out of movies pretty fast, wouldn't we?" Seth said.

"We'd run out of _your _movies pretty fast, but then we could get to the good stuff." Summer smirked at him, he stuck his tongue out at her. "You're so immature!" she whispered to him.

"Well, maybe Sum, I like being immature, ever thought of that?" he grinned.

"What?" Sam turned to him, "Did you just say my name?"

"Huh?" Seth said, unsure of what she was asking.

"No, he said Sum, you know, short for Summer," Summer said coldly.

"Oh." Sam said.

—————————

Summer screamed as something in the movie blew up, Seth grabbed her and stroked her hair. "It's okay, it's not real" he smirked, as if he was talking to a five-year-old.

"Shut up loser."

"What was that? Oh, did you just insult me? Lame Summer; lame." He grinned.

Summer smacked him in the stomach, "That better?"

He keeled over, "Ah! What was that for?"

"Calling me lame."

"Well, you called me a loser!"

"Which was lame!"

"You just called yourself lame!"

Sam interrupted, "You guys are so adorable, you're just like brother and sister, you even look alike. If I didn't know better I would say you were related."

"Quiet during the movie!" Seth yelled.

"You were just talking to Summer," Sam mumbled.

"She needed some sense talked into her." He whispered, "And plus her and I have already seen this movie before, so it doesn't really matter."

"Then why'd you shush me?'

"Sorry."

"Okay."

"Shhh"

Five minutes later Sam spoke up, "I gotta pee. Anyone want anything on my way back?" she stood up, and walked in the direction of the bathroom.

Summer looked at Seth, "I don't like her. But now is perfect."

He nodded and stood up, leading Summer to the kitchen, where they had a clear view of the bathroom door.

"You sure about this?" Summer asked, hoping he wouldn't say no.

"Yeah. She deserves." Seth turned to the door, watching for when it opened. He was just about to turn back to Summer when he saw it starting to be pushed open, "Now." He whispered.

Summer gladly positioned herself right in front of Seth, and threw her arms around his neck. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his; it felt perfect. He opened his mouth slightly, allowing their tongues to collide. It was in that second that she realized that she might have feelings for Seth.

Seth felt the blood rush to his head when he felt Summer's tongue massage his. He could barely believe that he was actually kissing her, even if it was just to get his girlfriend to break up with him. It didn't feel like that though, they were both pouring their hearts out into the kiss, which they had _both _been waiting for—for longer than they would admit. It was just getting started when Seth felt someone tap his shoulder.

"Um, excuse me… I thought you said you were over her!" Sam screamed.

"Well…" Seth mumbled.

"I knew it! I knew that there was something between you two! I would've at least thought you'd have the kindness to break up with me first. But I guess not!" Sam spat.

"I'm sorry?"

"Sorry?! You cheated on me with the girl you told me yourself you used to like!"

"I don't know what to say." Seth muttered.

"We're done!" Sam screamed, before turning and leaving; slamming the door shut.

Meanwhile, everyone else was still in the living room, not really hearing anything that was going on between Seth, Summer and Sam because the volume was turned up full blast, and the doors were shut.

And Summer was standing there with tears in her eyes. Sam's words echoing in her head: "_I thought you were over her_" implying that Seth had told Sam that he had once—if not still—had feelings for her.

"What's wrong?" Seth turned away from where Sam had left to face Summer.

"What did she mean 'I thought you were over her'?" Summer said, her voice cracking.

"Uhhhhhh…"

"Seth!"

"I dunno?"

"Of course you know! I can tell when you're lying!" she turned away from him.

"Summer…please!" he pleaded.

"No! Seth Cohen, tell me right now…or else,"

Normally, Seth would make fun of her for saying such a…_straight-out-of-a-movie_ thing, but this wasn't a normal time. "I can't" he said softly.

"Why not?!" Summer screamed, the tears were streaming down her face, "You're my best friend, Seth! We can tell each other everything. We made a pinky swear and everything. Please!"

"Summer, for once, please just take my word and believe me that I physically cannot tell you."

"What?!"

"I can't tell you!"

"Yes you can!"

"No!!!"

"Okay, do you wanna hear what I think she meant?" she threatened.

"Sure! Enlighten me!" he said sarcastically.

"I think that on our double date she told you that it looked like me and you were a couple, so you got her off your back by saying that you used to like me, but you don't anymore, since I don't like you like that."

"Huh?" Seth couldn't believe what she was saying, it was pretty much exactly what had happened, "How'd you know?" he said softly.

"I said the same thing to Jake when he asked me the same question!"

"Huh?"

"Stop saying that!"

"Why'd Jake say that to you? Seems like a pretty stupid move to me, on a date and everything. To _accuse _your date of liking someone else."

"Yeah, I know! When we're obviously just friends! It doesn't deserve being broken up over it." They were screaming at each other now, and they weren't showing any signs of slowing down.

"What?"

Summer glared at him, "I said, Jake accused me of liking you, so he broke up with me!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Seth asked, neither was really thinking anymore, they were just too caught up in the moment to really think about the consequences of letting their feelings out.

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because I thought you would think I actually liked you!"

"Why would you think that? Because you obviously don't!" Seth spat.

"Why would I?"

"Oh, I don't know!" he said sarcastically. "Maybe because every time we're together, it's awkward when we talk about other guys or girls, or because you definitely enjoyed kissing me a few minutes ago. Or because you didn't even hesitate to help break Sam and I up! Or _maybe _because you wouldn't tell me the real reason you and Jake broke up, or because you'd rather spend a night with me—alone on the beach than at one of Ryan's parties."

"Shut up!" she wanted nothing more than to just grab his face and kiss him again right then and there, but she just _couldn't_.

"It's true and you know it!"

"No it is not!" Summer defended.

"Can we just stop fighting?" Seth asked, he was crying too now, he hadn't even noticed.

"Fine! But I'm leaving!" she turned away, trying to hide her tear streaked face.

"Summer, wait! I didn't mean any of that! Please!"

"Yeah, but you did mean it Seth, you meant it more than any thing you've ever said to me."

"Look at me! I'm crying, Summer, CRYING! Just over a fight with you, and we fight ALL the time. So, what I'm saying is that I can't have you actually mad at me! So, please can we just pretend none of this ever happened?"

"No. We can't. We can't just pretend that I didn't just find out that you did—or—do have feelings for me. We can't just pretend that we didn't just kiss. And yes, I enjoyed it! Because I enjoy kissing people in general and you definitely are a good kisser, not because I have feelings for you."

"Stop lying to me! I can tell when you're lying to me too!"

"I'm not lying!" she screamed, "Seth, can you please just stop" she added softly, looking down.

"Alright fine, I'm stopping, but you have to realize one thing," he moved closer to her and lifted her chin up so she was looking at him. "I need you; as my best friend, to never leave. No matter how many enormous fights we have that end in both of us in tears. We will _always _be friends, okay?"

Summer just nodded, pulling away from Seth, "Okay, be at my house tomorrow at the usual time to pick me up for Ryan's party, and I won't forgive you if you're late. And…no one finds out about what happened tonight."

"Okay. So everything's just fine now?"

"No. It's not fine, Seth, I'm making an effort here. For right now, Marissa is my best friend, you are just my friend, until we sort this out completely."

"What?! I'm not your best friend anymore?"

"No you aren't, and you probably won't be for a while—if not ever."

"Summer!" Seth pleaded.

"Seth! It's over! This conversation's over! Now, could you go get my dad and tell him I need a ride home?"

"No. Not until you've forgiven me."

"I'm not mad at you."

"Then why aren't we best friends anymore?"

"We are."

"What?"

"I've decided that you are my best friend again. So can you please go get my dad?"

Seth smiled at her, pulling her into a hug. "I missed you."

"Cohen! We weren't best friends for like five seconds!"

"So! It's a long time to be apart, even emotionally" he smiled widely, adding, "And you called me Cohen."

"Yeah. So what?"

"You stopped calling me Seth, and you never call me Cohen when you're mad at me."

"We know each other way too well." She grinned, "Now, can we please somehow find a way for me to get home?"

"I could drive you?"

"Sure. But no talking; I've heard too much of your voice tonight." She smirked.

"Alright fine loser."

"You're so lame!" Summer grinned; at least they were pretending like nothing had happened, although her lips were still tingling from when Seth kissed her. And she was still fighting the urge to kiss him _again_.

That was not helping.

* * *

**I'm not sure I liked this chapter, but, Please review :D, PLEASE lol**

**-Sarah**


	4. Oh

**A/N - Thanks for the response everyone! It was great to read those reviews and they all made me smile. The italic stuff is flashbacks...sort of, So here's a post:**

**DISCLAIMER: We all know it. So why do I even need to say it? Oh all right, _I don't own any of it._

* * *

Summer**

I like Seth. Horrible; I know, but true nonetheless. The worst part is how much I like him. I don't even think I can describe it. When he kissed me…the whole world stopped. That's the only way I can describe it.

"_Oh, I don't know!" Seth screamed sarcastically—at me. "Maybe because every time we're together, it's awkward when we talk about other guys or girls, or because you definitely enjoyed kissing me a few minutes ago. Or because you didn't even hesitate to help break Sam and I up! Or maybe because you wouldn't tell me the real reason you and Jake broke up, or because you'd rather spend a night with me—alone on the beach than at one of Ryan's parties."_

All of that was true. Why I didn't acknowledge then and there escapes me. I think it's because of one of Seth's theories from his "Theory phase"—as I like to call it. He called it the "Automatic Response" theory; it said that, for example, when you study really hard for a test and then you find out last minute that one thing was wrong, then you drill this new information into your head, but then when test time rolls around, you forget all this new information even though you learned it all before. You knew the old information for so long that it was the automatic answer that came to your mind. It's just like that—I convinced myself for so long that I didn't like Seth that those were the answers that came out—I didn't _want _them to come out, but they did. Ruining a chance with Seth.

"_So! It's a long time to be apart, even emotionally" _

This worries me. Seth needs me, and I need him. So if I were to risk anything; there would be a lot at stake. And I'm not sure if I want to do that—just yet. I don't even know if what I feel is real—well actually I know it's real, but I don't know if those feelings are returned.

I should talk to Coop.

—————————

Seth sat on his bed—yes, listening to Death Cab—and yes, mumbling quietly to none other than Captain Oats himself.

Everything was so screwed up. There was a big confrontation and Summer rejected him once again! He put his heart out and all he got back was:

"_Because I enjoy kissing people in general and you definitely are a good kisser, not because I have feelings for you."_

Oh wow! He was a great kisser—you don't hear that everyday, and look at that, she doesn't have feelings for him! Isn't the world just fantastic?!

Sarcasm.

Amazing, isn't it! Seth thought so, as it was the only thing he could do right now—yes, _be sarcastic_. That was what he did when he was angry or depressed or not really feeling much of anything.

_Summer glared at him, "I said: Jake accused me of liking you, so he broke up with me!"_

This was the one thing that gave him hope. If some other guy saw that Summer had feelings for Seth, then it had to be pretty obvious…right?

Or maybe not. Maybe this was just all a _sign _or something that was saying that maybe, just maybe, it was time to actually, finally, move on from Summer.

Nothing was ever going to happen between them. And he could _definitely _learn to work with that. Because he would have to. He didn't need to find a new "crush" right away, but that would definitely help him at least try to move on. Maybe he could call up Amy, his girlfriend of two-months from eighth grade, they broke up on good terms and they were still sort of friends.

Yeah, that would work. But first, he had to talk to Ryan.

—————————

"Hey Coop!" Summer said into the phone.

"Hey. What's up?" Marissa answered.

"I like Seth."

"Well that's a surprise." Marissa said dully.

"Huh?"

"Congratulations on finally realizing something we've all known forever."

"What're you talking about?"

"It's been obvious since like sixth or seventh grade that you had an enormous crush on Seth."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Marissa shrugged, not realizing that Summer couldn't see her, "I didn't want to get you mad?"

"Why would I get mad?"

"I dunno. So, what made you realize?"

"Everything. First Jake told me that I liked Seth, which set me off, but I still couldn't accept it. Then he kissed me and just wow that boy can kiss!"

"Wait. He kissed you?!"

"Yesterday." Summer nodded, smiling.

"Why?"

"We were trying to break him and Sam up, she was annoying him."

"So it wasn't like a 'Summer-I've-been-in-love-with-you-my-whole-life-so-I'm-gonna-kiss-you-to-tell-you-that' type deal?

"What?! Did he say something to you?"

"No. But I mean he's just as bad if not worse with the whole 'I'm-in-love-with-my-best-friend' thing."

"Cohen likes me?" Summer almost screamed in shock

"Well, I think so, but I'm not 100 percent sure."

"Then why'd you tell me?!"

"I'm just telling you my opinion on what I saw on several occasions."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I just mean…oh never mind this is stupid……so are you gonna tell him?"

"I dunno. That's kinda what I was hoping you could help me with."

"I can't make a decision this huge for you! Your whole friendship is riding on it!"

"Not helping!"

"Sorry. What if, and just what if, he doesn't like you back—that would be heartbreaking."

"Again…not helping!"

"What I'm saying is that I'm about 97 sure that he likes you. But there's always that other 3."

"Oh."

"I think you should tell him. Or at least go over there and see what happens if you sort of hint at it."

"Okay. I'll call him; see if he wants to hang out tonight."

"Good luck."

"So, I'll call you later? Then we can actually talk about you and Luke and your little demented love triangle with Ryan."

"It's not demented!"

"Oh you know it is! Gotta call Cohen, bye!" Summer laughed, pressing 'END'. Then the phone rang. She picked it up.

"Summer Roberts, you just hung up on me!" Marissa yelled through the phone, although Summer could tell she was fighting back laughter.

"Not really…I said bye."

"But I didn't!"

"Okay, I'd love to discuss this but I kinda have waay too much on my mind at the moment, so I really have to call Cohen." Summer paused, "Bye?"

"Bye." Marissa said grudgingly.

"See ya!" Summer pressed the 'END' button.

—————————

"Ryan!" Seth yelled as he walked into the house.

"I'm in the living room!" Ryan yelled back.

"'Kay! I'll be right there."

"Sounds good!"

"Hey." Seth said as he entered the living room, noticing another person there, "Oh hey Jake,"

"Hey Seth" Jake smiled.

"Uh okay…Ryan I really need to talk to you."

"Why can't Jake stay?" Ryan asked.

"Uh…"

Ryan looked at him expectantly.

"It's cool." Seth sighed.

"What's up?" Ryan asked.

"I…uhhh…I have…a little bit…of a…dilemma." Seth stammered.

"And that is?" Jake asked.

"This is just too weird" Seth said, "Can we talk about this later?" he asked desperately.

"You brought it up, man." Jake looked at Seth strangely.

Seth sighed again, "It's just…kinda about Summer…and you guys just broke up and everything…"

Jake perked up, "Did she tell you?"

Ryan looked between the two of them, "Tell him what?"

"Yeah, tell me what?" Seth asked in bewilderment.

"I guess she didn't tell you then…so what's this about?" Jake gestured for Seth to continue.

"Come on, Seth." Ryan sighed.

"Uhhh…ok…so it's a long story." Seth started, "So me and Summer made a plan to break me and Sam up because I couldn't do it myself but then we ended up hurting her more…" Seth looked at the other two for a response, but since he didn't get any he continued, "And I've liked Summer forever, right."

"What?" Ryan and Jake said in unison.

"I like Summer." Seth started.

"Okay…" Ryan said in disbelief.

"So anyways…our plan was for Summer to kiss me and have Sam witness the whole thing…and it worked…but it ended up in this whole confrontation about me having feelings for Summer—with of course Summer…which was insane. We were yelling at each other at the top of our lungs and by the end she was crying. She talked about you, Jake a little too—how you kept accusing her of liking me, and how mad she was about that—but it didn't matter anymore, because it was obviously not true…and then I gave her this whole list of reasons why it could be true and all I got was, 'you are a great kisser, I just don't have feelings for you.' I mean, COME ON! It was absoulutey…"

Seth's rambling was cut off by Ryan, "Slow down there."

"Yeah. Was she really that mad at me—and you?" Jake asked quietly.

"Well, not me, because she can't be mad at me—for more than 5 seconds at least, but she was pretty mad at you." Seth looked at Jake.

"Oh. That sucks—all of it does" Jake sighed.

"Yep." Seth agreed.

"So what are you gonna do? You obviously like her A LOT," Ryan asked.

"Yeah…obviously. But I think I need to get over her a little."

"Why?" Ryan looked at him.

"'Cause she doesn't like me…therefore no chance of _us_"

"Well she could've just been saying those things…"

"Nope…you should've seen how serious she was."

"Okay…so what're you gonna do?"

"I could call up Amy."

"Who?"

"She's an ex…she wasn't annoying and the only reason she dumped me was 'cause she was going away for the summer."

"So you're just suddenly over it?!"

"No! I need time but I also need a distraction…therefore bring old non-annoying girlfriend back…see the logic?"

"I guess…" Ryan sighed.

—————————

She pressed '2' and then talk. Seth was #2 on her speed dial, her dad was first because he insisted on that. Therefore, Seth was second.

"Hello?" she smiled when she heard his voice.

"Hey Cohen." Summer said excitedly.

"Hey Sum." Seth responded.

"What's up?"

"Oh I'm just chillaxin'"

"Cool. So you wanna hang out tonight?"

"And do what?"

"Watch a movie? Playstation?" she smiled. "Chillax?" she mocked.

"Movie sounds good to me. Seven? My house?"

"Sure. It's all good."

"I called Amy."

"Who?"

"My ex-girlfriend from middle school…she still goes to school with us."

"Oh." She paused, "Why?"

"I was thinking we could give it another shot."

"Maybe you should wait a little while, I mean you just broke up with Sam _yesterday._"

"I'm not saying I wanna get back together with her. I'm just saying I'm keeping my options open for another potential girlfriend."

"You don't always need a girlfriend you know."

"Yeah…I know but life is better when you're in a relationship"

"Not necessarily…Cohen, life is more fun when you're single."

"Why so I can make out with randoms at parties...no offence Sum, but that's not really my style."

"Oh."

"Yeah…so I'll see you tonight?"

"Yeah…see ya!" Summer said with fake enthusiasm into the phone.

"Bye, Sum." Seth sighed.

_Oh. _That was her response to his news that he was calling Amy. Seth hated the word 'Oh' especially when Summer said it in that way. That '_Oh'_ made his heart break because for some reason whenever she said it there was always hurt in her voice. It wasn't 'Oh' as in the conversation's over, it was 'Oh' as in 'that's horrible but I'm not actually going to say it.' Maybe this whole Amy thing wasn't such a good idea. But it was kind of what he needed—not necessarily a girlfriend…just another friend that could possibly turn into something more—eventually. Hopefully he could force himself to fall for Amy in the same way he had fallen for Summer. Even he knew that wasn't going to happen…but it was worth a shot, right?

—————————

This officially sucked. Completely and totally. Summer finally accepted her feelings and then Seth decides that he needs a girl every second of the day. Well, why couldn't _she _be that girl? Why did it have to be another Sam? It was supposed to be Summer. Not Sam. Not Amy. Summer.

—————————

**So, that was sorta just to let people know their feelings...I know it was really crappy but oh well.**

**PLEASE REVIEW lol caps lock for you there. But Please!**

**-Sarah**


	5. WhenTimesGetTough, Laugh

**AN - Thanks for the reviews everyone! They were awesome:D. So please review this one too...it's pretty long for me. The italics are a song, "Change Your Mind" by The All American Rejects.**

**DISCLAIMER - I don't own the OC or The All American Rejects.**

* * *

Summer picked up her phone, typing the name… 'Jake.' After three rings, he picked up. 

"Hello?" he said distractedly.

"Hey Jake" Summer sighed.

"Summer! How's it going?" he perked up a little.

"Not great."

"How come?"

"You were right."

"About what?"

"Me liking Seth!"

"Oh." This was bad, they were both coming to him about the same problem; what should he say? "Uhhhh…that's good that you realized."

"Yeah…so what should I do, Mr. Psychologist?" she grinned.

He heard a beep signalling that someone else was calling, "One sec…it's the other line."

"Okay." Summer sighed.

---------------------

Jake pressed the 'switch' button, "Hello?"

Seth's voice came through the phone, "Hey. Can I talk to you?"

"Uhh…sure."

"Have you talked to Summer at all?"

"Uhhh……yeah I did a few minutes ago, why?"

"Did she say anything?"

"About what?"

"Me!" Seth screamed into the phone.

"Ow! Not so loud next time… yeah, she sorta mentioned your fight."

"Sorta mentioned?"

"Yeah…one sec there's a person on the other line."

---------------------

He paused, before pressing the 'switch' button.

"Hey Summer."

"Hey." Summer yawned.

"I think you need to talk to Seth. You're both hiding stuff."

"Did you talk to him?"

"Yeah…a couple days ago."

"Oh. What'd he say?"

"He just told me and Ryan about the fight and some…other stuff."

"Stuff, eh?" Summer asked curiously.

"Yep."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Oh. It's the other line again, be right back." Jake dodged the question, pressing 'switch'

---------------------

"Jake?" Seth asked.

"I'm here."

"So, this is my problem…I want to move on from Summer…but I don't know if I can…and she got all weird when I brought up calling Amy."

"Well…duh."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Seth, are you blind?!"

"No. What're you talking about?" Seth asked, frustrated.

"One sec. I'll be right back."

---------------------

He pressed 'switch' "Summer?"

"Yeah?" she said.

"What're you gonna do?"

"Well, see I was talking to Marissa and she said that Seth likes me but I don't know if that's true and I'm not sure if I want to risk it, but now he's going on about calling his ex."

"Yeah…he told me about that."

"Who, Seth?"

"Yeah dumbass."

"What else did he say?"

"Stuff?"

"Care to elaborate." Summer said, getting frustrated.

"Yeah…sure…just before I tell the other person on the other line that I have to go."

"Okay." Summer breathed angrily.

"Seth! She freaking likes you as much as you like her, how can you not see it?!" Jake yelled into the phone.

To Jake's surprise it wasn't Seth who answered—"Jake?"—it was Summer.

Uh-oh. He forgot to press 'switch' "Summer?" Jake asked carefully.

There was no response.

Summer threw the phone onto her bed. _Did he just say what I think he just said? Stupid Jake, what was he thinking putting that idea in my head! Seth likes HER, but who's her? It could be Amy or Sam or any other girl that they knew, but there was also a slim chance that it could be me. Yeah, that's right: Slim chance. It's not worth it. Forget about it. _

_But I can't._

---------------------

"Hey" Seth said she entered his room. He looked up from his comic. She was wearing a layered blue tank thing and a flow-y brown skirt. She looked amazing; her golden brown hair falling on her shoulders. But not nearly as good as Summer ever could.

"Hey." Amy answered, "So, why'd you call me?"

Seth shrugged, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Okay…so…how're _you _doing?" She asked, semi-awkwardly.

"Pretty good." He lied, "You?"

"Really great actually, did I ever tell you about Travis?"

"Uh, no I don't think so."

"Well he is now _officially _my boyfriend."

"Wow, uh, congrats."

"Thanks." Amy had a huge grin on her face and Seth couldn't stand to disturb that. "What about you? Any lucky ladies going after you?"

Seth smirked a little, but his facial expression quickly turned into a frown, "Nope, I actually just broke up with my girlfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, "Anything I can do?"

"No, it's cool. She was really annoying."

"So why'd you go out with her in the first place?"

"'Cause she asked." Seth shrugged.

"Couldn't you say no?"

"I'm really bad with rejecting people, it's always 'maybe' or 'sure' never 'no'"

Amy laughed a little, "Well you should work on that then."

Seth laughed too, "Yeah, probably."

"So, there's no one that you're after?"

"Well, sort of…" Seth said slowly, "Actually, I could use a girl's perspective on this."

"I'm a girl." Amy grinned.

"Yeah, so remember Summer?" Seth started, Amy nodded, "Well, she's my best friend and I have this massive crush on her that I keep quiet half the time, but lately, especially after Sam and I broke up, there's been this…tension between us. And she's always really different when I talk about other girls, and we got into this huge fight after we kissed because we were trying to break Sam and I up. And she sorta found out that I liked her, but she still doesn't know if I still like her or if I got over it. And she told me that her ex-boyfriend, Jake, accused her of having feelings for me, and I was talking to him on the phone and his last words before we…lost connection or something were, 'Seth are you blind?!'" he rambled.

To Seth's surprise, Amy let out a small laugh, "You sure got yourself in deep there. But honestly, it's not a surprise that you like her."

"How come?"

"Well, I remember way back in eighth grade, you talked about Summer half the time, and whenever I see you around school, you always either are with her or staring in her general direction."

Seth laughed, "Yeah, I do stare at her a lot, that's not weird is it?"

Amy shrugged, "I guess not, but have you ever thought of it like this, that maybe you just tricked yourself into liking Summer, I mean it happens to the best of us, we convince ourselves that someone likes us and then we think if they like us then maybe I should like them. And then we find out that they don't like us and we continue to like them because you actually, genuinely got yourself to develop feelings for them."

"Why would I have to convince myself I have feelings for her?"

"You wouldn't, it's just a possibility…my advice would be to not talk to Summer for a couple days and get your head straight."

And with that the conversation was over. They then moved on to talking about whatever came to mind, the conversation running smoothly, without a single awkward silence, and with a lot of laughs.

---------------------

Summer stormed out of her room, not caring that she was wearing sweats and no make-up. She needed to do this. She had called a taxi and was on her way to Seth's house to tell him straight out how she felt. Summer got into the taxi and paid him ahead of time so she could get out faster. They made the drive in less than 10 minutes.

Summer sprinted out and opened the door that was ajar. She quickly walked up the steps, running into Sandy along the way.

"Summer? What're you doing here." Sandy looked at the red-faced teenager.

"I'm going to talk to Seth." Summer answered in a frustrated tone.

"Oh," she was acting strangely, "He's in his room I think."

"Okay." Summer started up the stairs again, she was so intent on getting to Seth's room that she didn't even hear what Sandy shouted up at her.

"Maybe you should wait, he has a friend over."

Summer continued up and when she reached the door to Seth's bedroom she, without knocking, walked in and shouted, "Seth, are you decent? I need to talk to you."

When she reached the bed she saw the one thing she was hoping she wouldn't see, Seth was laying on the bed and Amy was beside him, sitting cross-legged. They were both laughing.

"Summer?" Seth looked away from Amy at the dishevelled Summer that was standing at the foot of the bed. She was red-faced, in loose grey sweat pants and a wifebeater that said "I Don't Kiss and Tell" She looked absolutely breathtaking to Seth; just like she always did.

"I-I should be going." Summer stammered, looking between Seth and Amy.

"Why? You just got here." Amy smiled, although for some reason she was feeling slightly jealous of the way Seth was staring at Summer.

"Yeah. C'mon. Join us." Seth moved closer to Amy, patting the area to his right.

"What're you guys talking about?" Summer asked awkwardly as she sat beside Seth.

"I can't remember, some sort of food I think," Seth shrugged.

Amy giggled, swatting Seth's stomach lightly, "Yeah, 'cause Seth here, definitely needs to gain some weight."

Summer gave Amy a look, "Why? Skinny guys like _Cohen_ are hot."

Amy shrugged, glaring at Summer, "I guess. But so are muscular guys."

"Hello! I'm a guy and I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about how hot other guys are, so tell me how hot am I?" Seth smirked.

"Aw, Cohen you're not hot." Summer looked at him, taking in how hot she actually thought he was, _snap out of it Summer! _She thought to herself.

"But you just said skinny guys like me are hot." Seth whined.

"I said 'like you' not you" Summer smirked, patting his arm reassuringly.

Seth turned on his side so he was facing Summer, and so he was blocking Amy from the conversation, not purposefully, "Sum…" he whined, "If I tell you that you're hot, will you tell me, honestly, that I'm hot?"

Summer grinned, "Sure."

He gazed into her eyes, "Summer Roberts, I think that out of all the girls in the world that I've known you are by far the hottest." He smirked, as if he was lying, but in reality he meant every word of it.

Summer looked deep into his eyes, before she realized she had been holding her breath. She exhaled, "And Cohen, I think that you—"

She was cut off by Amy's head popping up from behind Seth, "I feel so excluded," she pouted.

Seth turned back over so that he was on his back again; he shifted around so that he was now sitting up against the headboard. "Sorry." He mumbled. Amy had just ruined their 'moment'

They heard a cell phone ring and they all reached for their phones; it was Amy's. She picked it up, "Hey!" pause, "Awwww…." Pause, "Okay, I'll be there in ten," pause, "You too!" pause "Mwah!" and she hung up.

"Who was that?" Summer looked at Amy.

"My boyfriend. I gotta go, see you guys." Amy put on a sweet smile and gave a half-wave before walking quickly out of the room.

_Boyfriend._ The word echoed in Summer's head. Had Seth tricked her? Arg that stupid little—

Seth cut off Summer's thoughts, "Do you wanna go to Ryan's tonight?"

"Huh?" Summer said absentmindedly.

"We haven't gone in a while, it would be fun"

_We. _He hadn't gone either. "Sure" she said softly.

"Good. Now where were we? You were just about to fill my head with ideas about how hot I am," Seth teased.

"Ew, you are so not hot, drop it." Summer grinned.

"Okay." Seth smirked, before grabbing her sides and starting to tickle her.

"Ahhh!! Seth stop!" Summer squealed between giggles.

"Nope." He continued to tickle her, he moved so that he was almost on top of her.

"Seth!" she squealed, not noticing how close he was to her.

Seth looked down at her, a huge smile plastered across his face. Their eyes locked, he stopped. He was getting flustered now at the sparks he could feel between them.

Summer stared into his eyes, _just do it! _She yelled at herself. Just as she was about to make a move, Ryan barged into Seth's room.

Seth quickly moved as far away from Summer as possible.

"What's the emergency?" Ryan yelled as he ran in.

Seth sighed, "It's all sorted out." He had called Ryan at one point while Amy was getting some food or something to tell Ryan that everything wasn't going as planned, as Amy had a _boyfriend._

"Oh." Ryan looked between the two people on opposite edges of the bed, "Seth, can you come help me set up?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, Summer, you wanna help?" for the first time since Ryan arrived, Seth looked over at Summer, her eyes were wide and upset, she looked like she was about to burst into tears any second.

She got off the bed, "I have to be getting home anyways, see you guys." She said quickly, walking out of the room.

Seth got up too, "I'll be right back, I gotta walk her out." He followed Summer out, running down the stairs.

Summer felt tears in her eyes as she walked down the stairs, she stopped walking when she noticed a picture of her and Seth at age 7. He was holding a trophy that said 'Spelling Bee Champion, grade 2' She was standing beside him with a certificate that said, 'Spelling Bee Participant, grade 2.' She remembered that ceremony because Seth felt bad that he had a trophy and Summer didn't, so later on he scratched her name in beside his. Now that she thought back to it; that was probably the moment she starting liking Seth, of course, at age 7 a crush isn't anything you'd acknowledge, but it still can be there. Even without being noticed.

Seth noticed Summer staring at a picture of the two of them, he walked up behind her, "You know, I still have that trophy, if you want to see it."

Summer jumped a little bit, but she didn't turn to face Seth because he would surely notice that her eyes were full of tears. "It's ok, I'll just be going."

"No, come on! I want you to see it!" Seth grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a side room.

"Fine!" Summer said as she was being pulled into the room.

Seth walked over to a desk that was on the other side of the room and picked up a tattered plastic gold trophy shaped like a bee. He handed it to Summer, "Read it."

Summer looked at the bee in her hands, there were eyes and a huge smile drawn on the face. In permanent writing it said 'Seth Cohen, gr. 2' but beside it, in squished writing it said, 'And the very important Summer Roberts…the actual winner of the spelling bee, love Seth.' She looked up at Seth.

_And when the sky is falling,  
don't look outside the window.  
Step back and hear I'm calling.  
Give up, don't take the fast road._

"I meant to give it to you, but life was really insane then, you know, with all the excitement of being a 7-year-old." Seth smiled at Summer. "When I showed it to you, I had only written the 'Summer Roberts' part, but then as a surprise for you, I wrote the rest. I asked my mom for all the spelling and everything, 'cause I may have been able to spell 'cat' and 'write' and stuff like that but big words like 'important' were very difficult. I think we went through like three sheets of paper getting the spelling right." Seth looked at Summer for some kind of reaction, but she just continued to stare at him with tears in her eyes, "If you want…you can keep it. I was very proud of it when I was 7, so now you can be very proud of it" he smirked a little.

_It's just your doubt that binds you.  
Just drop those thoughts behind you, now.  
Change your mind.  
you let go too soon._

Summer couldn't believe how absolutely adorable he was being right now, she managed a smile, "I'll cherish it forever."

"Good. I would hate to see all the work I put into it—the face and all—go to waste in this little room."

Summer inhaled a little, "You should go help Ryan."

Seth laughed, "Not really, 'help' in my world means stand there and watch Ryan do everything,"

"Seth…" Summer whined, "Go."

"Why do you want me to leave so badly?"

_Don't run away.  
Change your mind.  
Let go too soon._

"You're supposed to help him—it's the right thing to do." Summer sighed, she couldn't do this any longer; she couldn't be around him without feeling so much more than she wanted to do.

"Okay…but how're you supposed to get to his place tonight?"

Summer glared at him, "I'll find a way! You don't have to do everything for me, Seth!"

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing. I'm going home."

"Summer…" Seth whined, "What's wrong?"

"Seth! You can't always read me! There's nothing wrong! I gotta go. Bye" Summer screamed at Seth, before running out of the room towards the door.

_Sit down, you're sinking,  
there's no one to watch you.  
Skip town, you're thinking,  
there's no one to stop you._

"Summer! Stop!" Seth yelled after her. He ran as fast as he could, jumping in front of her.

"Move" she commanded.

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on!"

"There's nothing!"

"Yes there is. Spill"

Summer thought up a lie, "It's just…I miss Jake."

"I thought you were over him" Seth said jealously.

She shrugged exaggeratedly, "Me too! I guess the universe works in strange ways, huh?"

"I guess so!" Seth said angrily.

_And all the bridges you've burned,  
leave you trapped off at all sides.  
And now the tables do turn,  
and it's all gone, what's left for you._

"I mean look, we broke you and Sam up, and then oh wait! You go after another girl and then the real shocker: she already has a boyfriend! And she says 'mwah' to said boyfriend. Ugh, vomit! But meanwhile you and I are talking and she interrupts with this sickly sweet smile that makes me wanna vomit even more!" Summer yelled in one breath.

_And when the sky is falling,  
don't look outside the window.  
Step back and hear I'm calling.  
Give up, don't take the fast road._

"What?!!"

"Nothing! Go help Ryan!"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't enjoy watching Ryan clean his house of all valuables, it's boring!"

"And this isn't?!"

"No, it's not. I'd rather be here with you than watching Ryan,"

"So would half the world," Summer said quietly, before she burst out laughing. You know when things get to much to bare, the first step is usually tears and then once that's over you laugh. And that's what Summer was doing, she couldn't stand anything anymore—so she _laughed._

Seth, who was in a similar state of mind laughed as well. Summer really was a sight, she had tear stains down her face and her eyes were full of sadness mixed with anger and confusion, but she was smiling.

_It's just your doubt that binds you.  
Just drop those thoughts behind you, now.  
Change your mind.  
Let go too soon._

Ryan bounded down the stairs, "What's going on? I heard yelling." He stopped when he saw the two of them—_howling—_with laughter.

"Oh hey Ryan," Summer _chuckled_, pushing Seth forward, "Seth's gonna help you set up now,"

"Yeah…at your service" Seth said between laughs.

"Are you guys ok?" Ryan looked between them.

"Yeah. Everything's just peachy." Seth laughed sarcastically, "Let's go, see ya Summer." He walked up to her and hugged her tightly.

"Bye Cohen, see you guys tonight." Summer pulled away reluctantly, and walked out the door.

Seth stared after her for a few seconds, his laughter slowly dying down. "Whew, that was great…wasn't it?"

Ryan just stared at him with a 'you're so weird' look on his face.

Seth walked past Ryan, patting his shoulder, "Let's get going."

---------------------

As soon as Summer left the Cohen household, she realized she was still carrying the Spelling Bee trophy. She glanced sadly at it, still laughing slightly. By the time she reached the end of the driveway she had stopped laughing completely. Why did she keep doing this to herself? She had opportunity after opportunity and every single time she just reverted back into this scared girl who couldn't risk anything for a guy. And that was so not Summer. She was never nervous or scared or any of that around guys. Deep down she knew the real reason: _she actually really, truly liked Seth, a lot, so to screw it up would be terrible. And to top it all off, screwing it up would mean the end of their friendship, which would be even worse. Normally she would go to Seth about this kind of "issue" but since that "issue" was about him…it made it impossible._

---------------------

That night, at Ryan's party, Seth was on the dance floor with Marissa, Luke, Ryan, Summer, Amy, Jake, Travis and other people. Everyone was dancing with everyone. Seth kept moving close to Summer and they were having a great time, she made him twirl her around…and around. She wished it could be like this all the time; since the music was so loud no one felt the need to speak. Here; on the dance floor, everything was forgotten, all that drama that seemed to be taking over her life lately. She looked over at her friends, if you could call them that. Well, you could call Ryan, Marissa, Jake, Luke and Seth her friends, but Amy and Travis…they were just two random people that decided they would follow the group everywhere. Travis looked down at his empty red plastic cup. Summer watched as he manoeuvred his way out of the cluster of people. She then watched as Amy made her way over to Seth, pulling him away from Summer.

Seth reluctantly let go of Summer's hand and started to dance closely with Amy. Amy kept moving even closer and closer until he could feel her breath on his face. She had a boyfriend, didn't she? Why was she basically molesting him in front of everyone?

This was not good. Before Seth could pull away he felt Amy's lips against his. He kept trying to pull away but she had her hand clasped on the back of his head. This made it impossible to get out. So Seth did the only thing he could do; he kept his lips clamped shut, not at all kissing her back.

Luckily, someone pulled Amy off Seth. Unluckily, that person was Travis. Before Seth could say anything in his defence, Travis's fist collided with Seth's face. This was definitely not good. Seth couldn't make out what Travis was yelling at him. Soon the commotion was over and some blonde guy was pulling him up. "R-ry-ryan?" Seth stammered.

"Yeah" he heard Ryan's voice through it all. "Summer, a little help?"

"Okay." Summer responded, pulling Seth's arm over her shoulder, trying to forget how much it hurt to see Amy with Seth. And how close they were—it wasn't normal.

They made their way across the room, Ryan gestured to the stairs, saying that they should find a bedroom for Seth to lie down in. They managed to get Seth up the stairs. Ryan opened the door to the guest bedroom, but he was greeted by a female shriek and a male voice saying "Get out!"

Ryan tried the next room—the family room—with a futon mattress.

As they placed him down on the bed, Summer spoke, "He's so fragile."

"Yeah." Ryan laughed.

"Ew but he's got blood on his face, should we clean it?"

Ryan looked at her like she was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen, "No, we should just leave it" He said sarcastically.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny Atwood, now where's the bathroom?"

"Over there." He pointed to a door on the left side of the room.

Summer walked over and grabbed some paper towel, holding some of it under the tap. She came back over to where Seth was, she started to dab his face with the paper towel. "How're you doing?" she asked softly.

Seth opened his eyes a little, "F-fine,"

"You don't look so good."

"Why was Amy k-kissing m-me?" Seth stammered.

"I don't know,"

"I don't even like her…a-and she has a w-wa-water polo p-playing boyfriend,"

"I know! I mean, ew!" Summer let out a shaky laugh,

"Yeah, it's stupid." Seth smiled up at her, "Why are you cleaning my face? It hurts."

Summer took her hand away from his face, "Am I hurting you?"

"I can't tell, it d-doesn't m-make a diff-difference."

"Okay, so can I keep getting the blood off your face?"

Seth sat up—way too quickly. He fell back down, "Ow…head rush…I'm bleeding?!"

Summer laughed a little, "Yeah, you didn't notice?"

"I guess not," Seth managed to smile a little, "Are we staying here tonight?"

Summer looked at Ryan, as if asking the question with her eyes, Ryan shrugged, "Yeah sure, whatever."

"Cohen, you want me to call your parents?" Summer asked.

"Sure." Seth responded.

Summer walked to the side of the room, leaving Seth to talk to Ryan.

"How're you holding up?" Ryan moved over to Seth's bed.

"Okay." Seth mumbled.

"Amy was all over you."

"I know, I couldn't get away."

"But I thought you wanted…"

"Not when she has a boyfriend, she cheats on said boyfriend, ending up with me being introduced to his fist."

"Well, we all get into fights at some point,"

"Not me…never had a fist fight before, 'cause people are so afraid of my big guns," Seth feebly pointed to his arms.

"Sure…you can think that all you want," Ryan smirked.

"I will thank you!" Seth said, totally serious.

Summer came back to where the two boys were, "They said it's okay, what time is it?"

"Almost midnight" Ryan glanced down at his watch, "Sorry guys, but I have to go back downstairs to see how everything's going."

"Okay." Seth and Summer said in unison as Ryan left the room.

"Can I sleep? I'm tired…but it's still early." Seth said slowly, his eyes already starting to close.

"Sure, Cohen, whatever you want." Summer grinned.

"Can you lie with me?" Seth lifted his arm slightly and pointed to the space beside him.

"Sure." Summer said as she went over to the bed, crawling in, but leaving some space between the two of them.

"Night." Seth said quietly before he drifted off to sleep.

"Night." Summer responded. She wasn't tired at all, but she would happily lie here with Cohen, especially when he looked so adorable.

_It's just your doubt that binds you.  
Just drop those thoughts behind you, now.  
Change your mind.  
Let go too soon

* * *

_

**Please review,**

**Sarah**


	6. Overload

**A/N- Thanks for the reviews everyone. :)**

**There is like zero S/S interaction in this chapter, so sorry about that, it just didn't fit in. The song is 'Soul Meets Body' by Death Cab for Cutie. Please review**

DISCLAIMER - none of it's mine

* * *

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Fine, dad." Seth responded, not looking up from his comic.

"You've been different lately, is there anything I should know?" Sandy asked in concern.

"Nope."

"Is it about your break up with Sam?"

"Nope."

"Is it about Summer?"

"Huh? What? Summer? What are you talking about?" Seth shot up, speaking quickly.

"You've both been different lately, you guys broke up with your dates within a week of each other, so is there anything I should know?" Sandy repeated.

"Nope."

"Is there anything I can do? I was quite the ladies' man before I met your mother."

"Never again, dad, never again."

"What? I'm rad! Don't deny it!"

"This is just wrong," Seth sighed.

"What? You've decided to open up to the old man?"

"No. You calling yourself rad is wrong, sorry."

"How's Summer doing by the way? Like I said, she's different, she doesn't talk as much to me anymore."

"That's because you call yourself rad"

"I am offended! You just denied the rad being that is Sandy Cohen" Sandy smirked.

"It's very deniable, ask anyone."

"Like your mother?"

"God, no. She'll get all cutesy explaining the good 'ol days."

"Well now you got me started! So this one time-"

"-yada yada yada, Berkeley, mailtruck, great 'Kiki-Sandford time' THE END!" Seth cut Sandy off.

Sandy laughed, "Exactly, but there's much more to it than that, those days were really amazing, just wail 'til you get to college."

"I'll be counting the seconds!" Seth smiled sarcastically.

"So, you still haven't told me what's up yet."

"Stop prodding"

"I'm a dad, it's what we do."

"Fine!" Seth whined, "See, my friend really likes this girl, but he's too afraid he'll wreck their friendship if he does anything,"

Sandy raised an eyebrow, "Your friend?"

"Yep."

"I was in a similar situation once, back in the day."

"Oh god." Seth mumbled in panic under his breath.

"I'll choose to ignore that." Sandy smirked, "Way back when, your dad was quite the fox." He glanced over to see the disgusted expression on his son's face, "All the girls were after me, but I really liked this one girl, who never went after me, 'cause she was one of my close friends. Then after about two months of over-analyzing everything, I decided to go for it. I like to call her my first love. It was one of the best decisions in my life, sure we didn't work out, but it was great while it lasted, and then I met your mother, which is a whole other story, and much more fascinating, 'cause it was definitely love at first sight…you see-"

"That's great! How old were you?" Seth cut Sandy off, speaking in a semi-sarcastic tone.

"Fourteen. I'm sure if you tell your _friend _that it's worth the risk if you really like the person,"

"Thanks." Seth mumbled.

Sandy stood up, starting to leave the room, "Good luck with Summer," he said before leaving the room completely.

_Stupid parent mind-reading skillage. _Seth thought to himself, before putting his headphones back on to escape with Death Cab.

_  
**I want to live where soul meets body  
And let the sun wrap its arms around me  
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing  
And feel, feel what its like to be new**_

---------------------

Live in the now. Stop thinking about the past. Think about the now.

This was what Summer was thinking. Over the past week, she had thought about almost every single memory that she and Seth had ever experienced.

_..::Flashback::.._

_Summer awoke with her face pressed into someone else's body. She jumped away, unsure of who she had been in the same bed with. When she looked over it all came flooding back, Amy kissing Seth, Travis punching Seth, Seth asking her to lie with him. He was out cold. She laughed a little, thinking of what she could draw on his face. But then she realized how sixth-grade that was. _

**I do believe it's true  
That there are roads left in both of our shoes  
If the silence takes you  
Then I hope it takes me too  
So brown eyes I hold you near  
Cause you're the only song I want to hear  
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere**

_Summer crawled over and leant down to peck his cheek, after all he was sleeping so he wouldn't notice. But then she decided it would be so much better if she just went straight for the lips. It was a short peck, but it just about made Summer's week. And luckily Seth didn't wake up._

_..::End Flashback::.._

LIVE IN THE NOW! Because Summer was a now person, not a then person; a now person. And she liked it that way. Good, now that we've got that all sorted out…who to call? She needed to talk to someone, but it had to be about anything but Seth. She was going on Seth overload, if that was even possible.

_**Cause in my head there's a greyhound station  
where I send my thoughts to far off destinations  
so they may have a chance of finding a place  
where they're far more suited than here**_

She found her cell and dialled Marissa's number.

"Hello?" Marissa's voice came through the phone.

"Hey Coop." Summer said brightly.

"Uh, hey Sum, can I call you back?" Marissa said, it was followed by a set of giggles from Marissa. And then:

Ryan spoke, "Yeah, please Summer, she'll call you in an hour,"

"Ew! Fine. See yah Coop and Atwood."

"Bye!" Marissa and Ryan said in unison.

---------------------

"Ryan!" Seth yelled into the phone.

"Yeah?"

"Can you come over?"

Then he heard Marissa's voice, "he's kinda busy." She giggled.

"Oh nasty. I'm just gonna… hang up."

"You do that." Ryan smirked as Seth hung up the phone.

Ugh. Ryan and Marissa were making out while Seth was stuck at home talking to the lovely Captain Oats about how much he missed Princess Sparkle. Maybe he should call Summer and ask her if she wanted to make out with him. He knew she'd _love _that. Ha. Who was he kidding? If he asked her that he'd spend the next two months in his room because of "severe bruising." Heck, it had happened before. Just kidding, sort of.

Maybe he should call Amy and ask her what the hell she was doing kissing him while she had a boyfriend. But that could also end up in the same way calling Summer and asking her to make out would. It's all good! So, he called Amy. He asked her everything and she said that she saw Travis flirting so she decided to get him back. But in some miraculous way, Amy and Travis were still together. Weird people.

---------------------

Jake. He was the one other person Summer could call, besides Seth, of course. But like before, she's suffering from Seth-overload. So, she called Jake and asked him to come over. She made sure she was all dolled up and ready when Jake knocked on her door. Her _front _door. They settled in the living room.

"So. Anything new with the whole—" Jake started.

"Can we please just not talk about that?" Summer cut him off.

"Sure." Jake smiled sweetly.

"Good. So, how's it going?"

"Okay."

"Just OK?"

"I guess." Jake shrugged.

"Any particular reason?"

"Just this girl I like."

"Oh. Do I know her? I could probably set you guys up. Ooo I love matchmaking!"

Jake laughed, "No, well I don't think you know her well enough to set me up with her, plus she's like completely in love with this other guy."

"Aw, that sucks, she'll come around."

"Yeah, but I don't think she will, she only thinks about one guy."

"Well, if she's happy you should probably leave it alone. But girls love it when you fight for them."

"She's not even with the other guy though, it's just written all over her face"

"Ah, I see. Then maybe you could just like ask her out, if she's not with the other guy."

"But I kinda don't want her to say yes, I mean, I really do like her, but she wants the other guy, let's call him S-or wait G… for guy, so badly, I think she should be with him."

"Aw, that's so sweet! But you should totally put yourself out there, she might surprise you."

_Subtlety so rocks. _Jake thought to himself, "Really?" he smirked.

"Yes." She grinned.

"Well then…" He leaned forward, pressing his lips softly against Summer's. To his surprise she didn't pull back.

"What're you doing?" she mumbled against his lips. She needed this right now.

"You're the girl." He mumbled, kissing her again.

But this time she pulled away, "Ew! WHAT?!!"

"I thought you were hinting at…" he trailed off.

"I don't hint! I go right out there and say it!"

"Then why were you kissing back?"

"It was fun. Helped get my mind off Seth."

"Well then let's continue," Jake tried to kiss her again.

Summer jumped back, "No, it's fun when neither of us likes the other one, not when….ew! Can you just, like, leave? Or something."

"Fine." Jake got up, grumbling.

"Uh, bye." Summer said, slightly flustered.

"Yeah, see you." Jake walked out the door.

---------------------

"Stop it!"

"It was just one kiss!"

"How could you do that to Seth?!" Ryan shouted at Jake.

"I don't know! I thought she wanted it!"

"Aren't you the one who's always going on and on about how much Summer likes him?" Ryan spat.

"Yeah, but nothing was happening, so I just…"

"It's been like 3 weeks and nothing's happening?!!! I wonder why that is?!" Ryan said sarcastically, "Oh, that's right, they're best friends! It's not the same as asking any other girl out!"

"Fine. I'm leaving." Jake walked to the door, only to find Seth standing there.

"You kissed Summer." Seth said quietly.

"It didn't mean anything."

"You. Kissed. Summer!" Seth screamed, much louder than the first time.

"It didn't mean anything, I'm serious!"

"Oh, Don't say that. Don't say that it didn't mean anything. Listen to me." Seth shoved Jake slightly, "If you thought about her everyday or if you memorized her laugh or if you once calculated how many seconds she's been alive! Maybe I could get how you could do this to me. But can you do it and say it meant nothing?"

Jake just stood there.

Seth shoved him one more time, "That's what I thought."

* * *

**That Seth speech thing about Summer was sorta taken**** from another TV show...so if anyone can guess what show it is, you get a, um, a post dedicated to you :). Or something like that. Three words. and it was only around for 2 seasons. **

**Please review,**

**-Sarah**


	7. Chocolate Milk and Thai Food

**AN - Thanks for the reviews :). This chapter goes out to julybergy and alicia because they got the show right! Ok, I have I chapter, and it's another short-ish one, but it's all I could write for now. It's ONLY S/S interaction woohoo :D Well, please read and review, the real author's note is at the end.**

**DISCLAIMER - I don't own anything.**

* * *

"Ahhh, it burns!" Seth screamed, grabbing the nearby glass of chocolate milk and downing it. "Need more," he gasped, reaching for Summer's glass. 

She swatted his hand, reaching for the glass and pulling it away from his grasp, "This is mine, get more."

"Summer!"

"Nope."

"PLEASE!"

"It's your own fault…eating Spicy chips then extra-spicy Pad-Thai."

"It was the appetizer!"

"It doesn't matter." Summer smirked, finishing off her chocolate milk.

"When'd you get so mean?" Seth pouted.

There was a sincerity in his voice that she didn't hear very often. But it had been coming up more and more lately. She knew he knew that she kissed Jake, yet he'd never brought it up. They just didn't bicker like they used to, it was actual underlying fights. But they'd never admit that. Summer didn't always realise that insulting Seth, in a however joking tone—could actually hurt him. And then when she realized that she'd actually been downright mean to him, she couldn't say anything because he would win. She knew that it was wrong to things like that—like it was just a game—who can come out with the most hits to the other's ego. Yet she couldn't help it, because however demented it was—that was them, and it worked—most of the time. When he looked at her like that—like she was the most horrible person ever, yet she was completely the most beautiful person ever—her heart actually broke, because that was the power she had over him. Most of the time she liked that power, but now when it caused Seth to feel actual, physical or emotional pain, however small, like his tongue being on fire—it just didn't feel right. A part of her wanted to laugh at how ridiculous that sounded, but she also knew that even though it sounded completely exaggerated, it was true. "I'm sorry." She said softly, almost forgetting what she was apologizing for; just everything or the whole chocolate milk/spicy food situation.

"It's fine." Seth mumbled. It was not fine. It was far from fine. Everything was so messed up. First there was the whole Jake situation. He knew she knew he knew about it, because _he _could read _her. _Just like _she _could read _him. _Because that was how well he knew her, and vice-versa. He loved her—or liked her, whichever you choose, although it was probably love, but he didn't know what love felt like. But if it was anything like what he felt for Summer, it was definitely a bumpy ride. He couldn't help it though, he couldn't help but feel the corners of his mouth turn up when he heard Summer's voice, he couldn't help but want to hold her like there was no tomorrow when she cried. She didn't cry very often though, well, at least about real stuff. She cried during movies and such, but she didn't even cry when her mom left. Or until Seth came to her side. She let him see her like that. She once told him that Marissa hadn't even seen her cry. But that was when she was thirteen, not when she was sixteen. Seth knew, and Summer knew, just how much life changed in those three years. When they were thirteen, life had its drama; actually major drama such as her mom leaving, which was the worst time of her life. But besides that, life consisted of late night phone conversations, school, and friends. Now life was made up of school, tension, relationship drama, too many love triangles to count, and so on. It was when he really thought about Summer that he realized how lucky he was. Summer only really had one parent; her father; her other best friend. Her mother—who his love for had instantly turned into hate when she left Summer helpless. And then, of course there was the stepmonster, who Seth hated—not because he had any personal experience with the matter—simply because Summer hated her. It was reasons such as that that made Seth think that what he felt for Summer could _actually _be love.

Summer jumped up, making the three and a half second trip to the refrigerator and back. When she arrived at Seth's side she was carrying the half-empty 1-litre carton of chocolate milk, "Here."

He smiled slightly, "Thanks," he poured himself a glass, "Although the whole spice explosion is pretty much gone by now, but you can _never _have too much chocolate milk."

"True."

Seth nodded, causing the milk to spill all over his face.

With that Summer burst into a small giggle-fit. She reached over and grabbed some napkins that were piled up on the table, wiping his face off. Like he was a two year old.

Seth pulled away abruptly, "Wanna help clean up?"

"Do I want to?" Summer raised an eyebrow, "No. Will I?" she paused, "Yes."

"Good, great. C'mon." Seth stacked the containers he had been eating from, making his way to the kitchen.

"Where're your parents?" Summer followed.

"They had some function to go to, Adults-only, luckily."

"Yeah, or else we would've had to eat your mom's food."

They both shuddered.

Seth opened the recycling bag, dropping the containers into it, "We should call Ryan and Marissa."

"Ew, no."

"Ew?"

"Have you tried calling them lately, they're always together."

"Yeah, I stopped calling. I go more for the barge in causing them to fly apart, it's fun watching them scatter."

"Only you,"

"Only me, what? Only I would be this handsome and charming and irresistible?"

Summer smirked, "If you were irresistible, would I just be your friend?"

"Yeah, because you hide all your feelings for the fantastic me."

"No I don't, you're obviously the one who can't stop thinking about me."

"Well, I'll give you looks, but personality…"

This got him a smack in the chest, "Are you saying that I don't have a good personality?" She yelled, thinking he was being serious.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying." Seth struggled to keep a straight face.

"You are so…" Summer said angrily, clenching her fist.

"Hot, smart, witty, funny?"

"Nope, I was going more for…" she snapped her fingers in the air, "Invigorating."

"You think I'm invigorating?" Seth obviously found this to be very amusing.

Summer realized her mistake, "I-I meant infuriating!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yes really." She glared at him, their eyes never breaking contact.

"Well, if invigorating was the first word that came to mind…"

"Ew!"

"What?"

"You're such a loser, you know that."

"Sum, Sum, Sum" Seth tutted, "We've been through this before; you're the loser and I'm the master of the universe."

"You realise that you're an even bigger loser because you just 'master of the universe'"

"It's what I do."

"Exactly, you're a loser by nature."

"Well, fine. But losers are by far the coolest."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Oh, yes it does! If you think you're a loser, then you're probably not a loser."

"That still doesn't make any sense."

"Losers are smarter too."

This got him _another _smack in the chest, "I hate you."

Seth's mouth dropped, that insult was only saved for the worst of the worst, and it stung, but he couldn't let Summer see that, so he grinned cheekily, "I love you too."

Summer just glared at him.

"Why'd you do it?" Seth asked the question that had been burning in his mind the whole night.

She knew _exactly _what he was talking about, but just to be sure, "What?"

Seth brought two fingers up and pressed them together, imitating someone kissing another person, the sadness evident in his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about." For the first time since they started bickering, she broke eye contact.

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Why are you denying it? I'm not angry."

"Why would you be angry?"

"I don't know, just seemed like the right thing to say."

"Cohen."

"Summer?"

"Hmm? What were we talking about?"

"It."

"That's helpful, no really what were we talking about?"

"How irresistible I am?"

"Nope."

"How much I love being your loser?" he stepped closer to her.

Summer exhaled raggedly, "Nope."

"How punching me in the stomach is your favourite pastime?"

"What're you doing?"

"I've thought about it, a lot, and I've decided that…"

"Seriously! What are you doing?" Summer stepped backwards.

"I'm telling you…"

"Don't say it!" she said in a warning tone.

"Why not? It's about time."

"No it's not!" She yelled, "It's—" and then, before she knew what was happening, Seth's lips were on hers. "I hate you." She mumbled against his lips, but she didn't even try to pull away. Because she wanted this, just as much as Seth did.

Seth smiled into the kiss, "I love you too."

* * *

**Ok, I know you might be thinking 'he said I love you! it's waay to soon' BUT it's just what he does, Summer doesn't think he means it, and he doesn't think she thinks he meant it. I know the beginning might have been confusing, because there were like one word answers followed by like 500 words of thoughts...and I know Seth thought a lot about Summer's mother a lot, but I'm about 97 percent sure that I won't ever bring Summer's mom in, because, although I love that storyline, I feel it's been done a lot, and the only reason I put that in was to show how Seth thinks, if that makes sense, so...now suggestions, should everything be all fine and dandy in S/S land or should they have doubts? **

**Please review!**


	8. Say Anything

**Thanks for the reviews everyone...I'm sorry this took a little longer than usual, but I got a little distracted with a oneshot I wrote, called "Smile Like You Mean It" if you want to read it...**

**Please read and review! **

**DISCLAIMER - I don't own any of it.

* * *

**

Five breathless minutes later, they broke apart.

"What was that?" Summer said slowly, trying to sound angry.

"I think we…" Seth gestured between them, "kissed."

"I got that." She glared at him.

"Sorry." He squeaked.

She stepped back, so she was about five feet away from him, "I meant…why?"

"Because…I-I…don't know." Seth sighed, he might be able to _show _Summer how he felt, but to go right out there and say it? No, not so much.

"You don't know?!"

"Yeah." Seth started to pick at his nails, not looking up at Summer.

"So, uh, you just were like, 'oh, let's kiss for no reason'?" Summer spat.

"No."

"Talk to me, Seth! Not just yes or no."

"What am I supposed to say!?"

"Oh, I don't know!" Summer screamed sarcastically, "There was actually a reason, for example, maybe, YOU LIKE ME?!"

"What?!"

"You heard me." Summer's nostrils flared.

"Look, Sum, it's not that simple."

"Yes it is! Now how about we go back to the yes/no thing…do you or don't you have feelings for me."

"Uhh…"

"Yes. Or. No."

"Yes." He said softly.

And then Summer's hand collided with Seth's cheek. "You jerk!"

Seth held his cheek, "What?!"

"Why didn't you just say it at first?!"

"Because…"

"You weren't sure?"

"Yes, I mean, no, I mean, Summer!"

"Yes?" Summer mumbled.

"You can't just expect me to pour my heart out to you."

"Why not?! You do that to everyone else!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do! Why can't I be the same?! I am your _best friend_!"

"Exactly! I can't just be like, 'oh, Summer, yes, I do like you. A lot.'"

"Why not?"

"Because you might not feel the same way."

It was only then that Summer realized that Seth didn't know how she felt, she couldn't go out there and say it, so she walked up to him, pulling his hand away from his cheek.

_Don't say a word  
I know you feel the same  
Just give me a sign  
Say anything, say anything  
Please don't walk away  
I know you wanna stay  
Just give me a sign  
Say anything, say anything_

She leaned up and kissed him, softly.

Surprisingly, Seth pulled back, "So, you do?"

Summer didn't answer, instead she kissed him again.

"Sum…" he mumbled against her lips.

"Shh…"

He pushed her away, "We have to talk about this!"

"No, we don't!"

"You do realize that I'm taking it as a yes to my question if you don't ans—"

She cut him off by kissing him…_again._

_Some say that  
Time changes  
Best friends can  
Become strangers  
But I don't want that  
No, not for you  
If you just stay with me, we can make it through  
So Here we are again  
The same old argument  
And now I'm wonderin'  
If things'll ever change, yeah  
When will you laugh again?  
Laugh like you did back when  
We'd make noise til __3 AM__ and the neighbors would complain _

---------------------

"You kissed!" Marissa squealed into the phone.

"Yes! We've already established that!" Summer said, exasperated.

"Sorry, I'm just really happy for you."

"You're seriously not surprised at all?"

"Nope, are you?"

"Yes!"

"How come? It's so freaking obvious with you two."

"Not to me!"

"What happened after? Did you guys talk?"

"We fought, and then we kissed again."

"I see, totally normal for you guys, minus the kissing part. So, you don't know where you guys stand?"

"Nope."

"That sucks. Are you gonna talk to him later?"

"I don't know. I want to, but what if he doesn't want to be official, what if he just sees me as another what's her face?"

"Sam?"

"No, I meant a random."

"Ok, got it. But, Sum, he doesn't see you as a random, he sees you as his best friend."

"I know! It's horrible!"

"Why?"

"Because he's so afraid of losing me that he won't do anything."

"Then why don't you tell him how you feel."

"I can't! I mean, I can tell you stuff, because you're not him, with him, especially lately, I get all frozen and the only thing I can do is either kiss him or yell at him."

"Well, why don't you yell your feelings to him?"

"Coop! Then he'll think I'm angry, when I'm not."

"Fine." Marissa sighed.

"Can you tell him?"

"No! He has to hear it from you, if I say he'll think I'm lying."

"Why would he think that?"

"Look, I don't know him half as well as you do, I'm only really friends with him through you and Ryan."

"But…please, Coop!"

"Sum, no, you have to do this."

---------------------

"Ryan, I have the greatest news ever, you may need to sit down for it, it's just _that _amazing." Seth said as he walked into Ryan's house.

Ryan just stared at Seth, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, Summer and I…could I have a drum roll?" Seth looked over at Ryan, "No, fine. Anyway, we kissed, man, and it was awesome!"

"Surprise, surprise." Ryan deadpanned.

"I thought you'd at least show some excitement. Guess you're not a real friend." Seth looked away dramatically.

"I'm extremely happy that you finally told Summer how you felt and she returned it." Ryan said in the same dull tone.

"But she didn't return it."

"Huh?"

"Well, she did, sort of, she didn't deny it, but she didn't actually say it."

"Uh oh."

"That's really helping."

"Sorry. I'm just being honest."

"That's very nice of you." Seth said sarcastically.

"Just doing my job, you know, as a _great _friend, being honest."

"Thanks for that."

---------------------

"Summer?" Seth called out as he opened the door.

Dr. Robert's voice rang through the house, "Seth?"

"Hey Neil." Seth smiled, after all these years he was comfortable enough around Neil to call him by his first name.

"Summer's at Marissa's, but she said she would be back at 2, and it's quarter to, so you could wait."

"Thanks, so how are you?" Seth said politely.

"Fine, thank you, how are you?"

"Pretty good."

"That's good, Sandy told me about you and Summer."

Seth froze, "W-what?"

"He told me that you've been fighting a lot lately."

Seth breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, I think we're over that."

"That's good, because you know you're like my second child, but if you hurt Summer then I may have to exile you from the family."

"Don't worry, Neil, I would never hurt Summer, and fighting is just what we do, it's nothing serious."

Neil clapped a hand on Seth's back, "Glad to hear it, now, you can wait here in the foyer I have some work to do in my office. I will see you later, Sandy said it was my turn for movie night, so that's coming up soon."

"Exciting," Seth tried to sound enthusiastic.

"Now, I really have to get going, bye Seth." Neil walked off.

Seth stood awkwardly for several minutes before finding a chair to sit on. He laughed slightly to himself, not that many people had foyers in their houses. Ryan definitely didn't have a foyer when he lived…Seth didn't even know where Ryan used to live, no one did. It was strange. Seth didn't really know why he was here, at the Roberts mansion, it was probably because he _needed _Summer to actually tell him how she felt. Because he wasn't like the other guys, he actually was kissing her because he _liked _her, not because he was bored or whatever reason those random guys had for making out, Seth had never done that. Summer and him; they were so…love/hate, and right now they were definitely in the grey area. Especially Summer, she was like literally slapping him and then bam! She's kissing him.

Summer walked into the house, not noticing Seth sitting there, she threw her bag in a random direction…it hit him.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"Oh my god! Seth?" she raced over to him.

"Yeah, first my face and now my stomach, I'm getting hurt a lot today, aren't I." He said under his breath.

"I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok," Seth grinned softly at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I think we need to talk," he said slowly, "Not this whole yelling thing we've got going, but like actually talk."

"Fine," she grumbled. "So you do actually…?" Summer trailed off; they both knew what she was going to say.

"Yes" Seth said without hesitation, "…and do you?"

The words wouldn't form in Summer's mouth, so she nodded slowly, once.

"Yes?"

She nodded again.

He knew she wasn't sure, or else she would be talking, not _nodding_. If she wasn't sure then he didn't know if he could get into anything real. He knew that she would have to say it one day—soon, but for now the simple nod was ok, right? Right. "That's good, so…what now?"

_All the things we talk about  
You know they stay on my mind  
On my mind  
All the things we laugh about  
They'll bring us through it every time  
After time after time _

"Well, we could go upstairs, like we normally do, hang out?" Summer sighed. Why was this so weird? It wasn't supposed to be this awkward. Hopefully they would get over it…but what if they didn't? They always did, though. But they'd never been this close to anything more than a friendship before. Actually, they had.

_Don't say a word  
I know you feel the same  
Just give me a sign  
Say anything, say anything  
Please don't walk away  
I know you wanna stay  
Just give me a sign  
Say anything, say anything _

—Flashback—

Seth waited in front of the box office at the Cineplex. He anxiously looked around the crowd, searching for that familiar head of brown hair. He glanced at his watch, _12:45_, the movie started five minutes ago, and she still wasn't there. She had said she would be there at 12:30 at the latest. The time was slipping by. He started fumbling with his shirt collar; he had worn the striped button-down at Summer's request, and there was no breathing room in it. He glanced down one more time at his watch, _12:53_, the previews were probably done by now so they'd missed the beginning of the movie. Seth walked over to the area with the small swivel chairs and sat down in one. There must have been some sort of issue at home. But Summer would've called, she always called.

—End Flashback—

Hopefully this time would go better.

* * *

**Oh, and the song was "Say Anything" by Good Charlotte. And don't worry, the drama will start in the next chapter.**

**Please review!**

**Sarah**


	9. I Never Say Quite What I Mean

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! This is up much sooner than I thought it would be...but I had some time. It's not as long as I planned it to be, though**

**Oh, and Luke, it might be a while for the next update of So Long Sweet Summer, because the other writer is away for a week or so. Thanks for the review, though.**

**The song in this chapter is "There's a Fire" by Ok Go.**

**DISCLAIMER - I don't own anything.**

**

* * *

**

A week after the 'kiss' Summer and Seth were debating over what to watch; all awkwardness pretty much gone.

"Seth…" Summer whined, "I wanna watch the Valley. Not a stupid thriller."

"Aw, but then I don't get to hold you when you scream." Seth smirked, receiving a whack on the stomach.

"Ew!" the thought of Seth _enjoying _holding her was just weird. They weren't _actually_ together, were they?

"You know you love it."

"Ew, no I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Nope," she said dryly.

"Fine, but just you watch…something's gonna happen and you'll scream and grab a pillow or something and that's just not the same as me."

"Actually, a pillow sounds perfect, thanks for the idea."

"You're welcome." Seth grumbled.

"Now I think I should put the movie on." Summer walked over to the DVD player, picked up a DVD from The Valley and put it in. She grinned at Seth before the theme song came on; and she started singing along.

"Summer!"

"What?" She asked innocently.

"I thought we were watch—"

"Shh!! No talking; it's _The Valley!_"

After one episode Seth was actually into the show, but Summer turned it off, "I think that's enough for now."

"Excellent." Seth said, trying to hide his disappointment, "What now?"

"I haven't seen Coop in so long! Let's go visit her."

"Didn't you talk to her a couple hours ago?"

"On the phone!"

"So?"

"C'mon, you can visit Ryan and I'll visit Coop, they're probably together."

"That's weird."

"Cohen! I know you were already at Ryan's earlier but whatevs…I haven't been to Coop's house in like three days."

"Oh my god! Three days!" Seth feigned shock.

"It's a long time. Plus I'm getting sick of you." She stuck out her tongue at him.

"You could never get sick of me."

"What did I just say?" Summer smirked, grabbing Seth's hand and pulling him out of the room, "Let's go."

"Ahhh, fine. You call Coop—"

"Don't call her Coop."

"And I'll call Ryan, see where they are."

They both picked up their cell phones and dialled the numbers of their best friends. After 5 minutes, they hung up simultaneously.

"Coop's at her house; upset." Summer sighed.

"Ryan's at his house…also upset, I'm assuming." Seth nodded.

----------

"I'm not breaking up with him!!" Marissa yelled.

"Why not?!" Ryan shouted angrily back.

"I can't do that to him!"

"He cheats on you!!"

"And I cheat on him."

"What kind of a relationship is that!? Marissa…I love you!"

"So what?! Luke said that to and look where that got me."

"Marissa, you can't do this to me, or him. Just break up with him!"

"I'm not going to and you can't do anything to change that."

"I love you! Doesn't that mean anything?!"

"No, it doesn't, I'm leaving, Ryan, bye."

"Don't leave!"

"Goodbye!" Marissa shouted before leaving the Atwood house completely. Twenty minutes later, Ryan heard Seth's voice echoing through the house, but he decided against answering.

"Ryan!!! Your door's open! That's not very safe…there could be robbers or criminals lurking and they would just come in and surprise you!" Seth walked slowly into the Atwood household.

"Ryan? You there? I think it's time for some serious Seth/Ryan time…like actual Seth/Ryan time… not the short visits on my part. Ryan? You're worrying me man…you said you'd be here at 3 and it's 3:02, and I have my watch with me so that's how I know the time, I'm not, like, stalking you or anything…" Seth rambled to the house, mostly. "Ryan! As much as I'm enjoying this one-sided conversation I think it's time you give me some sort of sign you're alive…."

A man walked out of the kitchen, "I would appreciate it if you got out of my house, I don't want my son to have crazy friends."

Seth eyes widened in fear, "Um, sorry, sir—Mr. Atwood? Ryan just promised to meet me here at—meet me here now, and he's not here so I got a little worried that something had happened."

"Ryan's upstairs."

"Ok, I'll just be going…" Seth said nervously, "Ryan said you were on a business trip, until next week."

"There was a change of plans, but that's none of your business."

"Nice meeting you, sir." Seth held out a hand politely.

"You didn't introduce yourself." Frank glanced down at Seth's outstretched hand as if it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen in his life.

"Oh, sorry. My name's Seth Cohen."

Frank grabbed Seth's hand and shook it, "Good meeting one of Ryan's friends, finally."

Seth nodded, unsure of what to say, "Uh, yeah, I'll see you around." Seth left the Atwood kitchen, in a daze, _Ryan's father! _What?! Ryan's dad was _never _home, that was how Ryan was able to hold those parties all the time. Seth ran up the stairs to Ryan's room quickly, anxious to get out of Mr. Atwood's sight. "Ryan?" Seth asked as her walked into Ryan's bedroom.

Ryan, who was lying on his bed face down, just grunted and turned over, "What do you want, Seth?"

"I'm just here to see what's wrong." Seth threw his hands up in defence.

"Well…" Ryan started his long story.

------------

"Coop, why don't you just break up with Luke? You really like Ryan, don't you?" Summer asked her friend in concern.

"Luke is _the _most popular guy in school, would you just wreck that for some other guy?" Marissa mumbled.

"Maybe…I don't know, I've never been in that situation."

"See, Sum, you don't even know what to say!"

"Sorry…but if I were you and let's just pretend that I've been in that situation, I would dump Ryan, because you obviously seem to care more about Luke."

"But I don't care more about Luke; I care about both of them."

"Then, well, dump Luke…if you're only in it for the popularity thing. Which, by the way, seems a little strange to me, seeing as you're the most popular girl in school…"

"Exactly, in movies the popular guy and girl always go out! It's, like, a rule!"

"Marissa, since when has life been the same as movies?"

"Always! Look at you and Seth—totally a storyline out of a movie, best friends, you have feelings for each other, magical kiss, awkwardness, and you'll be officially together…I can pretty much guarantee that happening."

Summer smiled, "Hmm…you may have a point, but you and Ryan, that is _so _not a movie type deal, it's always been weird and you're not even gonna dump Luke, if it were a movie you totally would've dumped Luke and realized that you should be with someone you actually like."

------------

The next day, Seth and Summer were at Seth's house, just talking. Summer had decided that Marissa was probably right about her and Seth, so she was going to tell him how she felt.

_Stop getting me off track.  
I mean it, there's a problem here.  
This time it is for real...  
how can I make myself more clear? _

"Cohen…I need to tell you something." Summer closed her eyes and spoke slowly.

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath, "I actually do…you know..."

"What?"

"Umm… I do want to watch a thriller?"

_I never say quite what I mean, and never mean quite what I say,  
and how did that get out of me, and what the hell did I mean to  
say? _

"Huh?"

"I meant I actually do…like you! There I said it, you happy?"

_This time it is for real.  
This is a real emergency.  
This time I swear it is the truth...  
this must be dealt with urgently! _

A small smile crept onto Seth's face as he stared into Summer's eyes, and this time, _he _nodded.

"Well that's good, 'cause I didn't want it to be—" Summer started rambling before Seth pressed his lips against hers. It was a soft kiss. It was just what they needed, although for some reason Seth had something else on his mind.

Seth had always been self-absorbed, but he was never selfish; he worried a lot. So did Summer, but she showed it more than he did. They both would do anything for each other, or their other best friends, Ryan and Marissa. But when it came to each other, there was always more worry, but they always acted on it. With Ryan and Marissa, they didn't need to think about them too much, because Ryan and Marissa had each other, so whenever something, for example, Luke, came in between them…It caused a lot of worry. Especially right now, for Seth, he was extremely concerned about Ryan, and when he worried about anything, he would ramble, no matter where he was. "Can you believe Ryan and Marissa?" he whispered against Summer's lips.

"Shh…"

"I mean, he actually fell for her, and she's just like, 'no, Luke, Luke, Luke.'"

"Why are you talking about this now?"

"Don't you care that our best friends are in this weird little relationship and right now they're moping?"

"Yes, but right now this is just you and me."

"Sum…" he pulled away from her, "Don't you care at all?"

"Yes. But you're talking crap about Coop, what am I supposed to say about that?"

"She's being selfish."

"She has a lot on her mind," Summer retorted.

"He actually fell for her."

"So?"

"So? So do you even know what that's like? Falling for someone who doesn't feel the same way."

"No, I don't!"

"Could you at least pretend to care?"

"Seth! I just told you how I feel and you're off talking about Ryan and Marissa!"

"Since when did _you _get so selfish?"

"I am not selfish! I was just a little caught up in the fact that, oh, we were kissing, and like, we actually know how we feel now, and…"

"Summer! Yeah, you did tell me how you feel, what after like a month of this weirdness between us!" Seth shook his head, "You know what? You and Marissa can just keep up this little chase thing you've got going, while Ryan and I are here just being played with and you know what? It's not fun! Maybe it is for you because your favourite hobby is making out with randoms, but not for me!"

"Shut up!" Summer shrieked, a few tears coming to her eyes. But none fell.

"Ok, fine! I'm leaving!"

"Fine! Now that I know how you feel about me!"

"Good!"

"Bye!" Seth shouted before slamming the door behind him.

As soon as he was out the door he immediately regretted everything he had said, but he couldn't go back in there and apologize. So he kept walking, passing Dr. Roberts on the way.

_I never say quite what I mean, and never mean quite what I say,  
and how did that get out of me, and what the hell did I mean to  
say? _

_**

* * *

**_

**AN - Ok, so I think this is the 2nd last or the 3rd last chapter of this story. I apoligize for the crappy chapter, but anywho, could you please review and tell me your thoughts, and if you have any final suggestions...**

**Please review!**

**Sarah**


	10. Concrete and the Fool

**AN - Thanks for the reviews. This is the final chapter. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it. There is a song in it, "Day Old Hate" by City and Colour, I was listening to it while writing, so if you want you could listen to it while reading... So one last time, please read, hopefully enjoy, and review, please!**

**The Italics are flashbacks, but they're pretty easy to tell because each one starts with their age at the time**

**The Bold-Italics are the song, but that's also pretty easy to tell. **

**DISCLAIMER - I own nothing.

* * *

**

Chapter 10: Concrete and the Fool

The dictionary defines 'concrete' as several things, one of them being, "pertaining to or concerned with realities or actual instances rather than abstractions; particular–the opposite of 'general'" another one being, "an artificial stone-like material."

Seth hated concrete, he hated the 'concrete answers' that people wanted out of him, and he hated falling on concrete, because, well, it hurt. There was only _one _thing that Seth had ever been completely certain about, the fact that Summer and him would end up together, even if they fought for weeks on end, they would always come back to each other; as friends or as more. Well, actually, he wasn't always so sure that him and Summer would _end up together, _he was sure that what he felt for Summer was far more than what regular people feel for their best friends. He didn't know why he exploded on Summer back in the house, he just knew that his mind was strange, and it was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

_Age 5: The First Meeting _

_Seth bounced on his heels, waiting to get to the front of the line; he couldn't wait to see Santa! Sure, he was Jewish, but he was Christian too, it was an unbeatable combination. He was nearing the golden gate that was supposed to look like the entrance to the North Pole. A brunette teenager in an elf costume walked up to them, a much smaller almost identical girl holding her hand. "Hi guys!" the teenager said perkily, "I'm Mandy, the assistant elf, and this is my assistant and cousin, Summer." _

_"Summer? Isn't that a season?" Seth asked curiously. _

_The small brunette girl shot him a look, "Yeah! But Summer is the most prettiful season so that makes me," she pointed to herself, "The most prettifulest girl ever." _

_"Okay, you are very prettiful." Seth said sheepishly. _

_Summer giggled, "Boys don't say prettiful! It's a girl word." _

_"I'm not a girl!" he retorted, without a hint of anger. _

_Mandy smiled at the two five year olds, "What's your name?" she asked Seth. _

_"I'm Seff" he grinned up at the teenager. _

_"Seth, would you like a lollypop?" _

_Seth looked up at his mom, "Grandpa sayed lollypops are bad, and I shouldn't eat them…" _

_Kirsten smiled, "Sure, honey, go ahead. And Grandpa doesn't know what he's talking about," _

_"Thanks mommy!" Seth grabbed a red lollypop from the basket Mandy was carrying. _

_"Red's my favourite too," Summer said to Seth. _

_"Red is the bestest kind." Seth agreed, ripping the plastic cover off the lollypop. _

**_So let's face it this was never what you wanted  
But I know it's fun to pretend  
Now blank stares and empty threats  
Are all I have, they're all I have. _**

Summer looked at the crumpled tissues strewn across the couch. The long bout of crying could've been the after-effects of watching "My Girl" or the results of eating way too much Wasabi on her Sushi, or it most likely could've been, Seth. He had no right to say all those things, or actually, he had every right, because what he said was true. She had been horrible by not telling him how she felt and giving him the wrong ideas. She had been stupid. She had been the fool. But if you thought about it, Seth had been a fool too, for holding back on telling _her _how _he _felt.

A fool: _noun – _a person who lacks judgment or sense.

_Age 6: Seth kicked the soccer ball to __Troy__, a friend of his, and __Troy__ kicked it to Summer. Just as she was about to do the 'super-cool' new trick she'd learnt, of kicking the ball backwards to the person directly behind her, she tripped over the ball, landing on her knees. A few tears fell from her face as Seth ran up to her. She looked at him with watery eyes, "I scraped it... it hurts." _

_"Do you want me to kiss it better?" Seth asked in concern _

_Summer scrunched up her nose, "Only daddy and mommy do that." _

_"But daddy and mommy aren't here right now." _

_"I know that, dumb bum! Fine you can kiss it better." _

_Seth looked at the barely scraped knee that he was expected to kiss, he leant forward and simply brushed his lips against it. "Better?" _

_"Yep. Almost. You ever wonder what a real kiss would feel like?" _

_"No, not really." _

_"I do. We should try it. Your mommy and daddy kiss all the time and they always have these gigantic smiles afterwards." _

_"Anything for you, Summy," Seth smiled, using their old nickname that was rarely used anymore. He puckered his lips like he'd seen in movies and waited for Summer to do something. _

_"You are supposed to kiss me, dummy, but since you're a dummy I guess I can kiss you," she puckered her lips in the same fashion that Seth had and pecked his lips once, quickly, and then pulling away. _

_After two whole seconds of sitting there with his eyes closed and his lips still puckered up, he opened his eyes and looked at Summer, "You have a gigantic smile on your face." _

Two weeks after their fight and Summer and Seth still hadn't said more than, "Hey," or "What's up?" "Nothing much, you?" "Same."

It was way past awkward and Seth didn't know how to mend their friendship. Or even, if he could go back to being just friends. He had been 'just friends' with her for nine years of his life and it was fine and all, but not what he wanted. He wanted to stroke her hair when she was sad, and most of all he wanted to tell her that he loved her, which he'd decided would be the second thing he knew was concretely true.

_Age 13: Seth kicked his foot on the pavement, pushing himself gracefully along the pier on his skateboard. If he had to say so himself, he was pretty good at skateboarding, it was one of his **many**_ _talents. As he heard his cell phone—or felt his cell phone—vibrating, he attempted the whole phone-while-skateboarding-ultra-cool move, but instead he did a face plant onto the concrete. The phone slipped out of his hands, so he fumbled around the ground, looking for it. He found it, and then he brought the phone to his ear. "Hello?" _

_All he heard was a sob on the other end. _

_"Summer?" _

_He heard "Mmhm" and then more sniffles. _

_"What's wrong?" _

_He heard her attempting to compose herself, "Come over?" _

_"Be right there," he waited for a response from Summer but none came, so he hung up, racing to Summer's house. _

_As he arrived he noticed the atmosphere was different than normal; her father wasn't there, nor was her mother. _

_He walked up the stairs towards Summer's room, knocking once and then entering the room. He made his way across the floor, which was covered in worn clothing. When he reached her, he didn't ignore his first instinct of enveloping her in a hug. _

_She touched his face, lightly, on the scrape he had from falling. She looked up at him, wide-eyed, silently asking what happened. _

_"It's nothing." _

_After several long minutes of having Summer crying into his shirt, she mumbled something along the lines of, "She's gone." _

_Seth stroked her hair, comforting her, "Who's gone?" _

_"Mom." _

_"Where'd she go?" _

_Summer shook her head. _

_And she let out another sob and kept crying, and Seth knew, in that second, exactly what had happened. He had once loved Summer's parents, and he still loved her dad—but he now **officially**_ _hated Summer's mom. _

**_So drown me and if you can  
Or we could just have conversation.  
And I fall, I fall, I falter  
But I'll find you before I drift away _**

Summer inhaled, feeling that familiar clench in her chest that she felt whenever she thought of Seth. Her heart felt like in was in her throat, pounding rapidly. It had been a week, one day, and three hours since her and Seth had even spoken. Yes, she had counted. She allowed a few stray tears to fall, knowing that they _both _had screwed up horribly.

"Honey, can I come it?" Neil knocked softly on the door.

"Sure, dad."

"Well, hi, long time no see," he smiled at his daughter.

Summer grinned back, "Yeah, sorry, I've just been…busy with school."

"So I've heard. I should call those teachers and tell them they should let up on the work load…it's destroying quality father-daughter time."

She laughed slightly, "I'll be sure to tell them that."

"Well, good. I've been meaning to talk to you about something, actually."

"I'm listening."

"Okay, so I was talking to Sandy, and he talked to Ryan who talked to Seth who told us pretty much everything that happened."

"Everything?"

"I think so. Well, the gist of it anyway—you know how Seth talks."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so, I just wanted to tell you something that you may or may not know already."

"Okay."

"So, when you were about seven years old, you were in swimming lessons with Seth, and he was the only one who could get you to get off the wall of the pool. And then, the mothers started planning your wedding, when you were seven! Sandy and I thought they were crazy, but now, I can see that my baby girl actually does like Seth Cohen, in that way, maybe not a 'marrying' way, 'cause you're only 16…but in a like, _like _way. And I'm pretty sure he likes you back."

Summer let out a shaky laugh, "I know he likes me back."

"Then why aren't you guys speaking?"

"Because…daddy…it's just so complicated."

"Did he do something?"

"Yes and no. We both did stuff that we shouldn't have, and that ended up in us fighting—for real."

_Age 7: Summer gripped the edge of the pool, her water wings holding her up. She was still afraid, though. The shallow end of four feet deep was pretty deep for her three-and-a-half-foot-tall self. Her father and mother were in the bleachers, watching their daughter attempt to get off the wall. Summer looked behind, startled as she felt a pair of small hands on her sides. _

_"C'mon, Summy, you can do it," Seth said softly, not demanding, really, but asking and **actually** telling her she could do it. _

_"I can't. It's so deep!" she whispered, a slight tremor in her voice. _

_"You have floaties," he protested, "They make you float." _

_"I know, I can't—," _

_"Wait. I have an idea! I'll carry you!" he started to walk backwards slowly, pulling her off the wall, she squealed nervously. "It's okay, I've got you," he pulled her out so she was lying on her back and floating, so he didn't really have to do any work. After several minutes of just floating there, he asked her quietly, "Can I let go yet?" _

_She clutched his arm, "No! I'll get drownded!" _

_"No you won't!" _

_"Yeah!" _

_"Okay, fine, Sum, but you gotta learn swimming one day." _

_"When I'm tall enough to stand in the shallow part." _

_"That's never going to happen, you're gonna be shorter than me for ever and ever." Seth grinned cheekily at her, she was about to smack him, but he laughed at her, "Don't forget I'm holding your life in my hands right now!" _

* * *

**_Now you still speak of day old hate  
Though your whole world has gone up into flames  
And isn't it great to find that you're really worth nothing  
And how safe it is to feel safe. _**

Seth lifted his head from the pillow to see Ryan towering over his head. "Hey man, how's it going?"

"Oh, just…great, I finally got Marissa to break up with Luke."

"I'm very happy for you," Seth said, overly cheerful.

"What about you? Sorted out your little fight with Summer yet?"

Seth sighed, "a) It is not a _little _fight, and b) no I haven't."

"I think you guys are blowing this thing way out of proportion."

"Me too!"

"Then why aren't you over there apologizing?" Ryan raised an eyebrow.

Seth smirked at him, "Because she should apologize too, and she won't."

"Says who?"

"Look, I appreciate you trying to get me out of this situation, but Summer is just…stubborn."

"So are you."

"Well then, we'll get nowhere."

"Why don't you take charge and go over there," Ryan said, Seth was about to interject but Ryan continued on, "I'm not saying you have to apologize; I'm just saying you should go over there, and instead of being stupid and skipping the whole 'dating' part, Ask. Her. Out."

"What, am I just supposed to go over there like nothing happen and be like, 'Summer, you wanna grab a bite to eat?'"

"Sure. Then you guys can talk it over, and go back to being…Seth and Summer."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Marissa told me that Summer is being just like you; eating, sleeping, going to school, and that's it."

"Hey! I do other stuff…like Playstation."

"Yeah, but you always play Playstation when you mope."

"I finished moping, like, a week ago; I'm over it."

Ryan tilted his head to give Seth the 'Look,' "We both know that's not true."

"It's sorta true…I've stopped…sleeping 'til 5pm on Saturdays."

"You slept 'til 5, like, once 'cause you were up all night drawing pictures of Summer."

"Exactly! I've stopped drawing Summer—now I strictly do landscapes."

"When have you _ever _drawn a landscape?"

"You know…once…" Seth mumbled.

_Age 12: Seth rubbed Summer's back in a comforting way, whispering random words that would make her feel better. They could still hear her parents yelling at one another. _

_Something had changed with her mother in the seven years Seth had known her. _

_She was angry all the time; at Summer and at Neil. _

_She wasn't supposed to be mad at Summer. It was okay for her to be angry with Neil, because all married couples fight; that was inevitable. _

_They heard the shatter of the wine glass against the wall and a high-pitched shriek. _

_And Summer clutched Seth tighter. _

_This was the one time Seth could hold back on his 'comedy' because for once he realized that it would only make things worse than they already were. _

_**So drown me and if you can  
Or we could just have conversation.  
And I fall, I fall, I falter  
But I'll find you before I drift away**_

"I need to talk to you right now," Seth hissed at Summer.

She ignored him, but turned her head slightly so she was almost facing him.

"Please!" he hissed again, and shot his hand up.

The teacher pointed to him, "Seth?"

"Can I go to the washroom?"

The teacher sighed, "Sign out."

"Meet me in 2 minutes at the water fountain," he whispered to Summer before standing up signing his name on the sign out sheet.

Why he had an epiphany in the middle of science class was unknown to him. It was weird, considering science was usually one of his favourite classes; to be zoning out and thinking of Summer. Well, he was always thinking of Summer, but, like, actually thinking about them. About four minutes later, Summer appeared behind him.

"What do you want, Seth?"

He inhaled, "I-I want to say," he paused, to look at her, "Sorry."

She shot him an attempted glare, "For what?"

"For saying that stuff to you, I didn't mean it. And for being such a jerk by bringing up Ryan and Marissa just when we-uh-were…kissing. And for not telling you how I felt right away, or for…"

Summer's features softened, "I get the picture, Cohen."

"Good. So, I was, uh, wondering if we could, uh, try again."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, if you wanna be friends then that's cool…or if you wanna, like, go out with me for one date, just to see how it goes…"

Summer had to work very hard to resist the impulse to smile, "When?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Where?"

"The Crab Shack?"

"Time?"

"7?"

"Okay."

And then she walked back to class. If Seth didn't know her as well as he already did, he would've thought she was being cruel. But she wasn't. She was just being Summer. But she wasn't being his Summer; she was being the Summer she was to everyone else. The Summer with her walls built up and who showed little to no emotion.

**_Fool: verb – to pretend._**

"I want it to be perfect," Seth demanded into the phone.

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" Ryan even sounded like he was giving him 'The Look.'

"Advice, man, A-D-V-I-C-E, Advice."

"Advice?"

"Dude…I just said that like five times."

"Yeah, I know. So, perfect date—first date…what about the classic: dinner and a movie."

"Every guy would do that. I want to, like, stand out."

"Okay fine, how about something special, like from your guys' 'history.'"

"Have you seen the movie My Girl?"

"Yeah, I think…it's with Macaulay Culkin, right?"

"That's the one. Well, our first kiss was like straight out of that movie—minus the bees and the asking to marry thing."

"I don't really remember it all that well…"

"In the movie, the girl asks Macaulay Culkin to kiss her, just to see what it feels like—and then he asks her to marry him when they get older if their teacher doesn't like her back. Well, when we were six, Summer asked me to kiss her because she said my parents always smiled after they kissed so she wanted to see what the big deal was."

"So…why don't you rent My Girl?"

"That's, like, one of the saddest movies ever! I can't handle it, Ryan."

"Oh. Well, is there anything else?"

"Uh, nope, not that could make anything good…unless I use something bad from the past…"

"Like…?"

"I could rent Lord of the Rings 3; it was supposed to be the movie we saw on our almost first date back in seventh grade."

**_—————————————_**

Summer admired her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a light blue top and a mini skirt—it was almost the perfect outfit, if she had to say so herself. She had demanded that Seth picked her up because that was what he was supposed to do. As she finished applying the last of her cherry flavoured lip gloss, she heard the doorbell ringing.

She walked slowly down the stairs, noticing that her dad had already answered the door.

"Seth! Long time no see!" Neil slapped a hand on Seth's shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, hi," Seth winced slightly in pain.

"I assume you're here for Summer?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, she's upstairs, but first, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure…but quickly, because I don't want to make her upset by being late…"

"It'll be quick, don't worry. I just wanna tell you that she's been miserable lately."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so just be sure not to mess this up, because I can't stand to see her like this any longer."

Seth's eyes widened in fear, the pressure was on! "Don't worry…I'll make sure we at least stay friends."

"Good. Now go, before she gets angry."

"Thanks, Neil, see ya," Seth shifted nervously before noticing Summer on the stairs; looking wonderful, as always.

"Hey, Seth. You wanna go?" Summer spoke softly.

He cringed slightly, as she still was calling him Seth, "Yeah, c'mon."

**_—————————————_**

"That was you, there's no possible way I could've eaten that," Seth smirked.

"No! I remember it so well, I even gave you the five bucks after," Summer grinned back.

Their date had been going extremely well, after about twenty minutes of awkward small talk, they had settled into a nice—comfortable—conversation zone. Meaning, they hadn't brought up any of the stuff that needed to be discussed.

"Oh, right, and then we were stuck listening to my Grandfather discuss stocks for the next hour or so."

"No, that was later, wasn't it?"

"I dunno…too many memories to keep track," he laughed slightly, "So, how've you been?"

Summer shifted in her seat uncomfortably, "Um, okay, normal, I guess. What about you?"

"I've, uh, been the same,"

"Good. So what prompted…" she gestured between the two of them, "…this?"

"Lots of stuff, I mean, I was okay, but my life's not nearly as…interesting without you in it."

"Interesting?"

"I don't know! It's just boring and kinda sad."

"So, your life is 'sad' without me?" she said, using air-quotes for effect.

"Yeah, I guess. You and Ryan and sort of Marissa are pretty much the only people I talk to on a regular basis."

"Except you and me haven't talked that much lately, have we."

"Hence why my life is 'sad'," he mocked Summer by using air-quotes as she had.

Summer smiled at this last comment, suddenly very absorbed with spinning her Shrimp Fettuccine around her fork, "So, then why'd you bring up 'stuff' after I, uh, told you how I felt?" she said the last part so quickly and quietly that it was almost inaudible.

"I don't know; it was a long time coming, I guess, with everything—I think it must've started when I found out you'd kissed Jake, and then you taking so long to acknowledge how you felt…"

"How did you find out about me and Jake?"

"I walked in on Ryan yelling at him for me, and then I kind of 'shoved' him, well, I can't really hurt anyone but it was okay. Why'd you kiss him in the first place?"

"It doesn't matter."

"We have to talk about this!" Seth said in a warning tone, keeping his voice low, because they were in public.

She took a deep breath and mustered up the courage she would need to say what she was about to, "Because you—and your stupid little face and your little jokes and your little girlfriends and the jealousy and…you…wouldn't get out of my head and I needed to take my mind off of it, and there Jake was—totally making a move on me, so I just thought, whatever, and I kissed back, then he started going on about how he liked me, yada, yada, yada—and then I got soooo mad at him, because he thought it actually meant something, when it totally didn't, and I thought that was pretty obvious—,"

"Slow down there," Seth grinned slightly at Summer's ramblings, "So it didn't mean anything?"

"Nope, nothing. What about you and Amy?"

"Ew," Seth said.

"Seriously!" Summer said, a little more firmly than before, but a small smile had formed on her face.

"Seriously, it was disgusting—and she has a boyfriend, and she wrecked that night for me, because that was my—that was when I was going to tell you how I felt, I think."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Well why didn't you tell me when—after you got punched by what's his face?"

"Travis? I didn't tell you because when Amy kissed me all my doubts came flooding back, and all the time I'd spent trying to get up the nerve to tell you was wasted."

"How long did you spend doing that?"

"Uh…"

"Cohen!" Summer said, amused, "Tell me, I promise I won't laugh."

"Yeah you will."

"I probably will—but so what? It's what we do."

"Fine, I spent 4 and a half hours in front of my sketchbook and/or Playstation mulling over everything."

She let out a small giggle, "That's not that bad; I find the embarrassing part is that you know exactly how long it was without even thinking."

"Shut up," Seth teased.

"You done?" Summer referred to his food.

"Yup, are you?"

"Yeah. You wanna go?"

"Sure, let me pay first."

Seth was amazed at how fast they settled back into their 'zone,' it was as if nothing had happened. Well, they knew something had happened, and they talked about it happening but then, five seconds later, they were back to their usual teasing.

Summer was not as surprised as Seth was, but she was still a little startled at the ease at which Seth was handling the situation. She still had to apologize, she knew that, and she had so much more to apologize for than he did.

An hour later, they were back at the Cohen's house and Seth had insisted that they watch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, in order to, like, correct their bad memories. Seth seemed to be enjoying it, but Summer was unbelievably bored; there was too much sword-fighting and battling and stuff.

"You liking it?" Seth asked awkwardly.

"Nah, too much violence," Summer shrugged.

"You couldn't at least pretend to like it?"

"Nope, I don't see what the point is anyway, that was like three or four years ago," she gazed up into his eyes, and without warning Seth pressed his lips against hers, kissing her slowly.

For several seconds, she kissed back, but then he felt her tense underneath him, "What's wrong?"

She looked up at him, eyes glazed over, and in barely more than a whisper she said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For…everything, I'm so sorry, you shouldn't have to be the one to say sorry, that should be me, 'cause you didn't do anything wrong, what you said was—not true—but that's what it seemed like. So, I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"No it's not! This—us—it's all my fault that we'll never go back to how we were."

"Do you really want to go back to that?"

"Yes, I mean, no, I just want us to be us again, it doesn't matter what."

"Well, I asked you out didn't I?"

"Mmhm," she nodded.

"And you said yes?"

"Yeah,"

"And if I were to ask you out on another date, and another, would you say yes?"

"Yes."

"So, where does that generally lead?"

Summer's eyes widened when she realized what he was getting at, "Are you saying…?"

"Yeah, Sum, I don't want to be your friend anymore, I want to be—,"

And before they knew what was happening Summer was kissing him again, softly at first.

_Age 10: "Eat it!" _

_"You eat it!" _

_Summer's mouth dropped, "Ewwwwww!!!" _

_Seth poked the pâté nervously, "Uh, you sure?" _

_"Oh, I'm sure. Seth Cohen, you eat that duck liver right now, and you get five bucks." _

_He held out a hand, "Cracker," she placed the cracker in his hand, "Knife," he put the cracker down and positioned the knife that had just been handed to him above the jelly-like covering of the pâté, he made one smooth slice through it. He placed the cracker underneath the duck liver and let it fall onto the cracker. _

_It **jiggled**. _

_And Summer giggled, waiting expectantly for Seth to eat it. _

_He shoved the entire thing in his mouth. _

_After several minutes of chewing, he did what most ten-year-old boys would do, and opened his mouth to showcase the chewed food. _

_"EW!" _

_Seth ignore Summer's shrieks, "It's actually really good, you should try it." _

_"Ew, no way!" _

_"C'mon…if you eat it then I won't make you pay up the five dollars." _

_She smirked, "Like five dollars matters, after that little show you just gave me…there's no way I'm eating that nasty stuff." _

_Seth shrugged, "Your loss."_

**_—————————————_**

"So you and Seth, eh?" Marissa said to her best friend.

"Yep, we're still taking it slow, though, very slow,"

"That's good, so you don't think of him as your 'friend' anymore?"

"That's why we're taking it slow, we need to make sure that we don't fall apart and become one of those…couples, like you and Ryan."

Marissa grabbed a pillow and whacked Summer over the head with it, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing," she coughed loudly, "PDA!"

"You and Seth will become like that—just you watch, I'll be laughing at you someday."

"Never,"

Suddenly, Marissa started fiddling around her purse, "Wait, Ryan's calling."

"You do realize you're just making my point clearer, don't you."

"Shut up," Marissa smirked, before finding her cell phone and pressing 'TALK' "Hey…Yeah, sure…we'll be there in 10…bye, love yah!" she pressed 'END' "They want us to meet them at the diner."

"Wow, shortest conversation I've ever heard you had with Ryan…interesting."

"You sound so much like Seth now, it's kinda creeping me out."

"I do not sound like him! He rambles, I don't ramble at all! And he's sarcastic about, like, everything, when am I ever sarcastic?"

"Hmm…all the time?"

"Fine, I'm a little sarcastic, but what's your point?"

"You spend so much time around him now that you've picked up his 'traits'"

Summer arched an eyebrow, "I've always spent this much time around him, how is this any different?"

"Why don't we talk about this…on the way to the diner? Because we're already gonna be late."

"Fine, let's go."

—————————————

"All I have to say is…finally," Ryan said when Seth finished recounting everything that had happened with Summer.

"Yeah, totally, it's been brewing for almost two months."

"Brewing?"

"Yes, brewing, as in waiting to happen."

"I know what brewing means,"

"Then why'd you ask?"

"'Cause it just seems like a weird choice of a word,"

"When have I ever been normal?"

"Never?"

"Exactly, that's what makes me one in a million,"

Ryan sniggered a little bit, "Oh really?"

"Yeah, I've been told that by my mom, dad, and two teachers, so it much be true."

"Oh that definitely makes it true," Ryan said sarcastically.

"Exactly! So how're you and Marissa?"

"Really good, what about you and Summer?"

"We're good, taking it as slow as my Grandfather's driving,"

"I didn't know Caleb drove slowly…"

"Well, he does, apparently my dad drives too fast, so he wants to show me how to 'properly' drive."

"That makes sense, I guess…"

**_—————————————_**

"Sum, Sum, Summy!!" Seth hummed to himself as he saw Summer and Marissa approaching them.

"Ew, don't call me Summy" Summer wrinkled her nose and gave him a small side hug.

"Why not? It's cute," Marissa said.

"Yeah, Summy, it's _cute_," Seth grinned

"No it is not, it was cute when we were, uh, six, but not now, okay?"

"Fine," Seth grumbled, "So what do you two want?" he gestured to Ryan and Marissa

"What about me?" Summer swatted his arm.

"I already know what you want; you get the same thing every time."

"Ugh, fine, what do I want?"

"Short stack—chocolate chip and a black and white milkshake," Seth said smugly.

"Alright, you win."

Ryan and Marissa exchanged a glance, and Ryan spoke first, "I'll have the same."

Marissa nodded, "Me too,"

"Now—I know you're all wondering whether or not I'll have the same," Seth looked around to his friends' blank stares, "I know, I know, it's a tough decision, but I think I'll be original, instead of chocolate chip, I'll go with the blueberry."

**_—————————————_**

Two months, one week, and three days later, everything was still pretty much exactly the same as it had been since Seth and Summer "got together."

Seth was twirling some of Summer's hair around a finger as she told him about her day. He made sure to listen to every single word, because if he didn't, there would definitely be a rage blackout. And he didn't want that happening, did he? No, he did not.

"And then…Holly was getting on my nerves again, and Marissa said that she's been annoyed too,"

"Why don't you tell Holly to stop bothering you then?"

"Because she's my friend!"

"But I thought she was annoying you."

"She is! But you don't just abandon your friends when they're getting annoying. Ew, oh my god, I totally forgot, but Holly told me that her and Luke are going out! That's, like, a rule, you never go after your friends' exes, but Holly's never followed 'the rules'"

Seth smirked, "You have rules?"

"They're not, like, written down or anything—that would be weird, it's just common sense!"

"So your common sense is to not date friends' ex-boyfriends?"

"Yeah, would you ever date Ryan's ex?"

"No, wait—theoretically? 'Cause I don't know if I'm allowed to answer that."

She giggled, "Yeah, you geek, theoretically, and I give you permission to answer."

"Probably not, but if she was hot—,"

"Seth!"

"What? See I knew this would get me in trouble…"

"Who's hot?'

"Holly's kinda hot, in a weird superficial way…"

"Eww! Cohen I can't believe you just said that!"

"I am officially not saying anything else until we're off this subject."

Summer looked up at Seth innocently, "Don't you wanna know who I find hot?"

Seth nodded.

"Well, Ryan's _smokin'_," she looked up in amusement at the look of horror on Seth's face.

"We are never talking about this ever again, okay? You're hot and I must admit I'm pretty hot myself, no other people matter…" Seth said, completely serious.

"Fine, fine, but you're not hot!"

Seth grinned and moved closer to Summer, bringing his hands to her sides, starting to tickle her, "Say it!"

Between giggles, Summer managed a few "no's."

"Just say it," he moved his face closer to hers.

After a few more minutes of 'struggling,' Summer gave in and mumbled, "Fine."

Seth's lips were almost against Summer's now and he whispered, "I didn't hear you,"

"You're pretty hot."

"Good enough," Seth said before closing the miniscule gap between them.

After a while, Seth pulled back, "You know, if you're still in denial about how handsome I am, this isn't going to work."

"I'm not in denial about the fact that you're handsome, you are, but there's a difference between hot and handsome," she grinned cheekily at him.

"Oh really? And what is that?"

"Handsome is like…good looking, anyone can be handsome, for example, your dad is handsome, whereas hot is an entirely different story."

Seth's mouth dropped, "I hate you."

Summer put a hand on his chin, a smile on her face, "I love you, too, _hottie_."

**_—————————————_**

Seth remembered writing a note in his sketchbook, under a drawing he'd done of Summer's face only, so he would never forget what he was thinking when he drew it.

"I've always had friends, my best friend being Summer Roberts. She knew every little detail of my life-story, except for the fact that I've been hopelessly in love with her since the day we met.

But now she knows that, and someday, she'll tell me that she feels the same way. Not our little "I hate you-I love you" thing, like an actual 'romantic' moment. I don't really need to hear it anytime soon, though. She shows it easily enough—with her eyes, for example.

I know that we won't ever be 'the perfect couple', but we work 'pretty darn well', to quote my grandfather.

We will definitely break up—or at least have a huge fight—or fights, because judging from certain relationships around us, nothing is perfect. Even my parents (the moral centre of the universe—to quote Marissa's mother, Julie) have fought and made up countless times.

While I have no doubt in my mind that Summer and I work out, should anything come between us, I definitely don't want anything to happen.

But I know _something _will.

And, of course, we'll get through it.

Because that's what we do."

**_—————————————_**

**_the end._**

**Okay, I know that was at least a little cheesy, but I hope it wasn't _too _cheesy... I'm a terrible judge of these things. I might come back to this story someday, but I probably won't--I just wanted to leave it sort of open ended, but leave _some _closure. Again, thanks for reading and reviewing, and please leave a review on this chapter!**

Sarah


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